Ultracold Atoms in a Tunable Optical Kagome Lattice
Abstract
Geometrically frustrated systems with a large degeneracy of low energy states are of central interest in condensed-matter physics. The kagome net - a pattern of corner-sharing triangular plaquettes - presents a particularly high degree of frustration, reflected in the non-dispersive orbital bands. The ground state of the kagome quantum antiferromagnet, proposed to be a quantum spin liquid or valence bond solid, remains uncertain despite decades of work. Solid-state kagome magnets suffer from significant magnetic disorder or anisotropy that complicates the interpretation of experimental results. Here, we realize the kagome geometry in a two-dimensional optical superlattice for ultracold Rb atoms. We employ atom optics to characterize the lattice as it is tuned between various geometries, including kagome, one-dimensional stripe, and decorated triangular lattices, allowing for a sensitive control of frustration. The lattices implemented in this work offer a near-ideal realization of a paradigmatic model of many-body quantum physics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1109.1591,
title = {Ultracold Atoms in a Tunable Optical Kagome Lattice},
author = {Gyu-Boong Jo and Jennie Guzman and Claire K. Thomas and Pavan Hosur and Ashvin Vishwanath and Dan M. Stamper-Kurn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.1591},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table