Erlangen 2022 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 49: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC III (joint session A/Q)

Q 49.2: Talk

Thursday, March 17, 2022, 11:00–11:15, A-H2

Formation of spontaneous density-wave patterns in DC driven lattices -- an experimental study — •Henrik P. Zahn, Vijay P. Singh, Marcel N. Kosch, Luca Asteria, Lukas Freystatzky, Klaus Sengstock, Ludwig Mathey, and Christof Weitenberg — Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Deutschland

Driving a many-body system out of equilibrium induces phenomena such as the emergence and decay of transient states, which can manifest itself as pattern and domain formation. The understanding of these phenomena expands the scope of established thermodynamics into the out-of-equilibrium domain. Here, we observe the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice subjected to a strong DC field, realized by strongly tilting the lattice. We observe the emergence of pronounced density wave patterns -- which spontaneously break the underlying lattice symmetry -- using a novel single-shot imaging technique with two-dimensional single-site resolution in three-dimensional systems, which also resolves the domain structure. Further, we investigate formation and decay time scales of the pattern formation as well as the role of tunnelling transverse to the tilt for the type of emerging pattern.