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Matter-Wave Diffraction from a Quasicrystalline Optical Lattice

Konrad Viebahn, Matteo Sbroscia, Edward Carter, Jr-Chiun Yu, and Ulrich Schneider
Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 110404 – Published 20 March 2019
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Abstract

Quasicrystals are long-range ordered and yet nonperiodic. This interplay results in a wealth of intriguing physical phenomena, such as the inheritance of topological properties from higher dimensions, and the presence of nontrivial structure on all scales. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of an eightfold rotationally symmetric optical lattice, realizing a two-dimensional quasicrystalline potential for ultracold atoms. Using matter-wave diffraction we observe the self-similarity of this quasicrystalline structure, in close analogy to the very first discovery of quasicrystals using electron diffraction. The diffraction dynamics on short timescales constitutes a continuous-time quantum walk on a homogeneous four-dimensional tight-binding lattice. These measurements pave the way for quantum simulations in fractal structures and higher dimensions.

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  • Received 26 November 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.110404

© 2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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A Quasicrystal for Quantum Simulations

Published 20 March 2019

Experimentalists realize a Bose-Einstein condensate on a 2D quasicrystal optical lattice, opening the path for simulations of a variety of quantum many-body phenomena in these fractal structures.

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Authors & Affiliations

Konrad Viebahn, Matteo Sbroscia, Edward Carter, Jr-Chiun Yu, and Ulrich Schneider*

  • Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

  • *uws20@cam.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 122, Iss. 11 — 22 March 2019

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