Quantum gases in complex lattices

Welcome to the blog of the group of Dr Elmar Haller. We study counterintuitive and intriguing phenomena of quantum physics in lattice potentials. We cool quantum gases down to temperatures close to absolute zero and use them to examine quantum phases and transport problems. Please have a look at our projects in the blog below. If you want to know more or if you want to join the team, please feel free to contact us.

Recent research

Instabilities of driven matter waves with interactions

We studied the stability of a Bosonic quantum gas in a 1D optical lattice with periodic driving, Phys. Rev. Research 5, 033024 (2023).

New team member

Robbie Cruickshank joined the team as a PhD student. Welcome Robbie!

Conference ECAMP14

Matt Mitchell presented our results at the ECAMP14 in Vilnius, Lithuania

Finess Meeting 2022

Our results about Floquet solitons were presented at the FINESS meeting 2022 in St. Martin, Germany

ICONIQ Workshop 2022

Finally, it is again possible to have face-to-face meetings. We presented our results at the ICONIQ Workshop, Imperial College, London.

Floquet solitons of matter waves

We observed Floquet solitons of matter waves in periodically driven systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 243603 (2021).

Matter waves with position-dependent interactions

We studied the evolution of BECs with position-dependent interaction strengths. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 183602 (2020)].

New Investigator Award

Hurray, we got the New Investigator Award by the EPSRC. The award will provide two years of funding for a project about Quantum bright solitons.

PhD viva of Dr Andrea Di Carli

Congratulations to Dr Andrea Di Carli for his PhD viva. Well done."

Breathing and higher-order excitations of solitons

We studied the excitation modes of bright matter-wave solitons, with the goal to observe breathing, higher-order excitations and splitting. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 123602 (2019)].

New team member

Matt Mitchell joined the team as a PhD student. Welcome Matt!

PhD viva of Dr Craig Colquhoun

Congratulations to Dr Craig Colquhoun for his PhD viva. Well done."

Measurement of micro-g acceleration

We managed to measure micro-g accelerations in an earth-bound experiment with freely expanding BECs [New J. Phys. 21, 053028 (2019)].

Experimental setup

Our setup is designed to cool a gas of cesium atoms from room temperature to quantum degeneracy. We reach Bose-Einstein-condensates of 300,000 atoms in 12s.

Latest News

Instabilities of driven matter waves with interactions

We studied the stability of a Bosonic quantum gas in a 1D optical lattice with periodic driving, Phys. Rev. Research 5, 033024 (2023).

New team member

Robbie Cruickshank joined the team as a PhD student. Welcome Robbie!

Conference ECAMP14

Matt Mitchell presented our results at the ECAMP14 in Vilnius, Lithuania

Finess Meeting 2022

Our results about Floquet solitons were presented at the FINESS meeting 2022 in St. Martin, Germany

ICONIQ Workshop 2022

Finally, it is again possible to have face-to-face meetings. We presented our results at the ICONIQ Workshop, Imperial College, London.

See all

Team

Dr Elmar Haller

Senior Lecturer

Matthew Mitchell

PhD student

Robbie Cruickshank

PhD student

Dr Andrea di Carli

Former PhD student & Postdoc

Dr Arthur La Rooij

Postdoc

Dr Craig Colquhoun

Former PhD student

Recent publications

R. Cruickshank, A. Di Carli, M. Mitchell, A. La Rooij, S. Kuhr, C. E. Creffield, E. Haller, Stability of superfluids in tilted optical lattices with periodic driving. arXiv (2024).

Cite URL

A. Di Carli, R. Cruickshank, M. Mitchell, A. La Rooij, S. Kuhr, C. E. Creffield, E. Haller, Instabilities of interacting matter waves in optical lattices with Floquet driving. Physical Review Research 5, 033024 (2023).

Cite DOI URL

M. Mitchell, A. D. Carli, G. S. León, A. L. Rooij, S. Kuhr, E. Haller, Floquet solitons and dynamics of periodically driven matter waves with negative effective mass. Physical Review Letters 127, (2021).

Cite DOI URL

A. Di Carli, G. Henderson, S. Flannigan, C. D. Colquhoun, M. Mitchell, G. Oppo, A. J. Daley, S. Kuhr, E. Haller, Collisionally inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein condensates with a linear interaction gradient. Physical Review Letters 125, (2020).

Cite DOI

A. D. Carli, C. D. Colquhoun, G. Henderson, S. Flannigan, G. Oppo, A. J. Daley, S. Kuhr, E. Haller, Excitation modes of bright matter-wave solitons. Physical Review Letters 123, (2019).

Cite DOI

A. D. Carli, C. D. Colquhoun, S. Kuhr, E. Haller, Interferometric measurement of micro-g acceleration with levitated atoms. New Journal of Physics 21, 053028 (2019).

Cite DOI URL