Abstract
We present a universal method to create a tunable, artificial vector gauge potential for neutral particles trapped in an optical lattice. The necessary Peierls phase of the hopping parameters between neighboring lattice sites is generated by applying a suitable periodic inertial force such that the method does not rely on any internal structure of the particles. We experimentally demonstrate the realization of such artificial potentials, which generate ground-state superfluids at arbitrary nonzero quasimomentum. We furthermore investigate possible implementations of this scheme to create tunable magnetic fluxes, going towards model systems for strong-field physics.
- Received 29 February 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.225304
© 2012 American Physical Society
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Mimicking Magnetic Fields in Optical Lattices
Published 29 May 2012
Two groups use different approaches to realize artificial magnetic fields for atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice.
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