Date: 2011-7-14, 10:00am

Venue:Conference Hall 322, Science Building

Title: Interaction induced novel condensates in a double-well optical lattice

Speaker: Qi Zhou

Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland, US

Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK

Abstract: It has been a great success to use cold atoms in optical lattices to simulate various theoretical models in condensed matter physics in the last decade. On the other hand, current studies have been focusing on single band physics. In this talk, I will discuss how novel macroscopic quantum phenomena can be induced by inter-band interaction in a double-well optical lattice. An intrinsic coupling between the lowest two bands due to interaction gives rise to larger Mott regions on the phase diagram at even fillings than the ones at odd fillings. On the other hand, the ground state can form various unconventional condensates, including a mixture of single-particle condensates of both bands, a mixture of a single-particle condensate of one band and a pair-condensate of the other band, and a pair-condensate composed of one particle from one band and one hole from the other band. The predicted phenomena should be observable in current experiments on double-well optical lattices.