Abstract
Quasicrystals are nonperiodic structures having no translational symmetry but nonetheless possessing long-range order. The material properties of quasicrystals, particularly their low-temperature behavior, defy easy description. We present a compact optical setup for creating quasicrystal optical potentials with five-fold symmetry using interference of nearly co-propagating beams for use in ultracold atom quantum simulation experiments. We verify the optical design through numerical simulations and demonstrate a prototype system. We also discuss generating phason excitations and quantized transport in the quasicrystal through phase modulation of the beams.
© 2019 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
R. A. Williams, J. D. Pillet, S. Al-Assam, B. Fletcher, M. Shotter, and C. J. Foot
Opt. Express 16(21) 16977-16983 (2008)
Gianluigi Zito, Bruno Piccirillo, Enrico Santamato, Antigone Marino, Volodymyr Tkachenko, and Giancarlo Abbate
Opt. Express 16(8) 5164-5170 (2008)
Ahmad Harb, Faraon Torres, Kris Ohlinger, Yuankun Lin, Karen Lozano, Di Xu, and Kevin P. Chen
Opt. Express 18(19) 20512-20517 (2010)