Optical Kagome lattice for ultra-cold atoms with nearest neighbor interactions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to create an optical Kagome lattice for ultra-cold atoms with tunable interactions and gauge potentials, enabling the study of highly frustrated quantum systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme to realize a Kagome lattice with controllable interactions using only two standing waves and internal atomic level manipulation.

Findings

Kagome lattice can be implemented with two standing waves.

Controllable nearest neighbor s-wave interactions are achievable.

The scheme enables exploration of frustrated quantum systems.

Abstract

We propose a scheme to implement an optical Kagome lattice for ultra-cold atoms with controllable s-wave interactions between nearest neighbor sites and a gauge potential. The atoms occupy three different internal atomic levels with electromagnetically-induced coupling between the levels. We show that by appropriately shifting the triangular lattice potentials, experienced by atoms in different levels, the Kagome lattice can be realized using only two standing waves, generating a highly frustrated quantum system for the atoms.