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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 56: Poster III

Q 56.26: Poster

Thursday, March 21, 2013, 16:00–18:30, Empore Lichthof

Orbital Physics with Ultracold Atoms in Higher Bands of an Optical Lattice — •Thorge Kock, Arne Ewerbeck, Robert Büchner, Matthias Ölschläger, Georg Wirth, and Andreas Hemmerich — Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

Atoms trapped in optical lattices have been used successfully to study many-body phenomena. However, the shape that bosonic ground-state wavefunctions can take is limited, apparently compromising the usefulness of this approach. Such limitations, however, do not apply to excited states of bosons. The study of atomic superfluids realized in higher Bloch bands, where orbital degrees of freedom are essential, can bring the world of optical lattices closer to relevant condensed matter systems. We discuss our observations of extremely long coherence times, chiral superfluid order and topological features in higher bands in a square optical lattice.