Observation of Density-Induced Tunneling

TL;DR

This paper reports the first direct observation of density-induced tunneling in a tilted 1D optical lattice, demonstrating its impact on bosonic atom dynamics and revealing interaction-dependent effects.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental evidence of density-induced tunneling and explores its effects on doublon oscillations and tunneling resonances in optical lattices.

Findings

Density-induced tunneling affects doublon oscillation dynamics.

Experimental data aligns with theoretical models.

Resonances from second-order tunneling break symmetry between attractive and repulsive interactions.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of bosonic atoms in a tilted one-dimensional optical lattice and report on the first direct observation of density-induced tunneling. We show that the interaction affects the time evolution of the doublon oscillation via density-induced tunneling and pinpoint its density- and interaction-dependence. The experimental data for different lattice depths are in good agreement with our theoretical model. Furthermore, resonances caused by second-order tunneling processes are studied, where the density-induced tunneling breaks the symmetric behavior for attractive and repulsive interactions predicted by the Hubbard model.