Neutral atomic gases in optical lattice potentials are currently arguably the most active topic of ultracold atom research. The atoms (which may, for instance, form a Bose-Einstein condensate or a superfluid) are optically confined in an array of weakly linked traps, where the optical potential arises from standing laser beams. The atomic gases in optical lattices provide a clean many-particle system with an unprecedented quantum control.
This opens up possibilities for promising applications, e.g., in using constructed ultracold atom systems in lattices to simulate strong interactions in order to improve the understanding of some outstanding problems in physics (such as high-Tc superconductivity - simulations of strong interactions in optical lattices were recently highlighted by the US National Academy of Sciences as one of the six 'grand challenges' in atomic, molecular and optical physics), in high precision measurements and inphysical realizations of quantum information processing. In optical lattices there are no lattice imperfections, the different system parameters may be adjusted and atoms can be simultaneously trapped in multiple spin states in spin-dependent lattices where the different spin components may be moved around independently.
We have investigated, for instance, dissipative bosonic atom transport in a tightly-confined optical lattice in the presence of strong quantum fluctuations (using stochastic numerical phase-space simulations) and analyzed optical detection techniques for atoms in optical lattices that could directly probe the quantum state of the system. The atom number and spin fluctuations in the lattice are reflected in the fluctuations of the number of photons in the scattered light.
Optical lattice experiments in the Max-Planck Institute in Munich
PhD studies in ultracold atom systems in optical lattices provide a training which combines a variety of skills in scientific computation (nonlinear systems and stochastic differential equations), modeling and analytic calculations. Such skills can be useful in a range of different future career options, all the way from scientific research to quantitative financial analysis.
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Solitons are propagating wave structures that preserve their shape due to cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects of the medium. Solitons can appear in various physical systems, such as in water. Here are examples of quantum fluctuations of soliton dynamics in tightly-confined 1D ultracold atomic gases.
