Dynamics of Ultracold Lithium in Modulated Optical Lattices
[Thesis]
Fujiwara, Coraline Junko
Weld, David M
2019
Weld, David M
2019
The extreme tunability and control that atomic physics provides makes quantum gases ideal platforms for experimentally realizing novel synthetic materials beyond what is traditionally realizable in condensed matter experiments. In particular, the ability to control interparticle interactions allows for the realization of long lived nonequilibrium states, and strong periodic modulation of lattice potentials realizes novel Floquet matter. In this thesis I shall present a series of experiments studying the dynamics of ultracold lithium in modulated and static one-dimensional optical lattices. First, I present an overview of the experimental apparatus which includes a description of the generation of our Bose-Einstein condensate and optical lattices. Then I step through four experiments which we conducted. The rst two involve studying spatial dynamics in static optical lattices in the ground and the excited bands which realize position-space Bloch oscillations and a relativistic harmonic oscillator respectively. The third experiment studies transport in Floquet hybridized optical lattice Bloch bands, and the fourth experiment investigates prethermalization in strongly modulated lattices with tunable interactions.