Simultaneous control of multi-species particle transport and segregation in driven lattices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generic method to separate different particle species in a mixture by controlling their transport in a driven lattice, using nonlinear dynamics and phase space attractors, applicable to colloids and cold atoms.

Contribution

It presents a novel scheme for simultaneous control and separation of multiple particle species based on their physical properties in driven dissipative lattices.

Findings

Successful separation of polydisperse colloids demonstrated.

Effective separation of cold alkali atom mixtures shown.

Control of nonlinear dynamics enables species-specific transport.

Abstract

We provide a generic scheme to separate the particles of a mixture by their physical properties like mass, friction or size. The scheme employs a periodically shaken two dimensional dissipative lattice and hinges on a simultaneous transport of particles in species-specific directions. This selective transport is achieved by controlling the late-time nonlinear particle dynamics, via the attractors embedded in the phase space and their bifurcations. To illustrate the spectrum of possible applications of the scheme, we exemplarily demonstrate the separation of polydisperse colloids and mixtures of cold thermal alkali atoms in optical lattices.