# Two-dimensional optical quasicrystal potentials for ultracold atom experiments

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact optical setup to generate two-dimensional quasicrystal potentials with 5-fold symmetry for ultracold atom experiments, enabling advanced quantum simulations of nonperiodic structures.

## Contribution

It presents a novel optical design and prototype for creating quasicrystal potentials, including phase modulation techniques for excitations and transport studies.

## Key findings

- Successful numerical verification of the optical design
- Prototype system demonstration
- Discussion of phase modulation for excitations

## Abstract

Quasicrystals are nonperiodic structures having no translational symmetry but nonetheless possessing long-range order. The material properties of quasicrystals, particularly their low-temperature behavior, defy easy description. We present a compact optical setup for creating quasicrystal optical potentials with 5-fold symmetry using interference of nearly co-propagating beams for use in ultracold atom quantum simulation experiments. We verify the optical design through numerical simulations and demonstrate a prototype system. We also discuss generating phason excitations and quantized transport in the quasicrystal through phase modulation of the beams.