Shaken not stirred: Creating exotic angular momentum states by shaking an optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to generate higher orbital states in ultracold atoms within optical lattices by shaking the trap and using shortcuts to adiabaticity, enabling controlled angular momentum states.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach combining shaking and shortcut techniques to create and control exotic angular momentum states in optical lattices.

Findings

Successful creation of anti-ferromagnetic angular momentum ordering

Design of specific pulse sequences using Lewis-Riesenfeld invariants

Validation through numerical simulations of the full Schrödinger equation

Abstract

We propose a method to create higher orbital states of ultracold atoms in the Mott regime of an optical lattice. This is done by periodically modulating the position of the trap minima (known as shaking) and controlling the interference term of the lasers creating the lattice. These methods are combined with techniques of shortcuts to adiabaticity. As an example of this, we show specifically how to create an anti-ferromagnetic type ordering of angular momentum states of atoms. The specific pulse sequences are designed using Lewis-Riesenfeld invariants and a four-level model for each well. The results are compared with numerical simulations of the full Schroedinger equation.