Periodic array of Bose-Einstein condensates in a magnetic lattice, in Phys. Rev. A

We report the realization of a periodic array of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of 87Rb F=1 atoms trapped in a one-dimensional magnetic lattice close to the surface of an atom chip. A clear signature for the onset of BEC in the magnetic lattice is provided by in situ site-resolved radio-frequency spectra, which exhibit a pronounced bimodal distribution consisting of a narrow component characteristic of a BEC together with a broad thermal cloud component. Similar bimodal distributions are found for various sites across the magnetic lattice. The realization of a periodic array of BECs in a magnetic lattice represents a major step towards the implementation of magnetic lattices for quantum simulation of many-body condensed matter phenomena in lattices of complex geometry and arbitrary period.

S. Jose, P. Surendran, Y. Wang, I. Herrera, L. Krzemien, S. Whitlock, R. McLean, A. Sidorov, P. Hannaford, Phys. Rev. A 89, 051602(R) (2014)