Spatial Bloch oscillations of a quantum gas in a "beat-note" superlattice

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an innovative optical superlattice for ultra-cold atoms with large site separation, enabling stable Bloch oscillations over long times, promising advancements in atom interferometry and quantum simulation.

Contribution

The authors experimentally realize a new superlattice potential with large site separation using a beat-note profile, enabling stable atomic dynamics at unprecedented distances.

Findings

Achieved stable Bloch oscillations over ten microns separation.

Demonstrated potential for long-term coherent manipulation of atomic samples.

Showed high stability of the superlattice potential over one second.

Abstract

We report the experimental realization of a new kind of optical lattice for ultra-cold atoms where arbitrarily large separation between the sites can be achieved without renouncing to the stability of ordinary lattices. Two collinear lasers, with slightly different commensurate wavelengths and retroreflected on a mirror, generate a superlattice potential with a periodic "beat-note" profile where the regions with large amplitude modulation provide the effective potential minima for the atoms. To prove the analogy with a standard large spacing optical lattice we study Bloch oscillations of a Bose Einstein condensate with negligible interactions in the presence of a small force. The observed dynamics between sites separated by ten microns for times exceeding one second proves the high stability of the potential. This novel lattice is the ideal candidate for the coherent manipulation of atomic samples at large spatial separations and might find direct application in atom-based technologies like trapped atom interferometers and quantum simulators.