Matter-wave diffraction from a quasicrystalline optical lattice
Abstract
Quasicrystals are long-range ordered and yet non-periodic. This interplay results in a wealth of intriguing physical phenomena, such as the inheritance of topological properties from higher dimensions, and the presence of non-trivial structure on all scales. Here we report on the first experimental demonstration of an eightfold rotationally symmetric optical lattice, realising a two-dimensional quasicrystalline potential for ultracold atoms. Using matter-wave diffraction we observe the self-similarity of this quasicrystalline structure, in close analogy to the very first discovery of quasicrystals using electron diffraction. The diffraction dynamics on short timescales constitutes a continuous-time quantum walk on a homogeneous four-dimensional tight-binding lattice. These measurements pave the way for quantum simulations in fractal structures and higher dimensions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1807.00823,
title = {Matter-wave diffraction from a quasicrystalline optical lattice},
author = {Konrad Viebahn and Matteo Sbroscia and Edward Carter and Jr-Chiun Yu and Ulrich Schneider},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.00823},
year = {2019}
}