Controllable diffusion of cold atoms in a harmonically driven and tilted optical lattice: Decoherence by spontaneous emission

TL;DR

This paper investigates how cold atoms diffuse in an optical lattice under external AC drive and spontaneous emission, revealing tunable and nonlinear diffusion behaviors with a maximum diffusion condition.

Contribution

It introduces the effect of an external AC drive on diffusion in optical lattices and demonstrates tunable, nonlinear diffusion enhancement due to this drive.

Findings

Tunable diffusion coefficient achieved with external AC drive

Nonlinear enhancement of diffusion with increasing drive amplitude

Identification of a maximum diffusion condition

Abstract

We have studied some transport properties of cold atoms in an accelerated optical lattice in the presence of decohering effects due to spontaneous emission. One new feature added is the effect of an external AC drive. As a result we obtain a tunable diffusion coefficient and it's nonlinear enhancement with increasing drive amplitude. We report an interesting maximum diffusion condition.