Open RQC colloquium. Lecture 31

Abstract

A way of generating subwavelength optical barriers (on a scale of tens of nanometers) for cold atoms and their potential applications are discussed. In the proposed scheme, such barriers originate from nonadiabatic corrections to Born-Oppenheimer potentials for position-dependent “dark states” in atomic Λ configurations. A periodic array of the subwavelength barriers represent an optical “Kronig-Penney” potential resulting in a distinctive band structure. Inclusion of an interparticle dipole-dipole interaction leads to formation of “domain wall molecules” and to unconventional Hubbard models with modulated in space interparticle interactions. The subwavelength barriers can also be used as a “splitter” to create a double-layer or a double-wire with subwavelength spacing and substantially increased coupling energy scales compared to ordinary optical lattices. For a double-wire, for example, this allows observation of Lifshitz transitions in Fermi gases in an experimentally realistic parameter regime. Finally, specially designed subwavelength atomic internal-state spatial structures can be used for building an atomic scanning microscope with subwavelength resolution.

Biography

Mikhail Baranov was born in 1961 near Moscow (Russian Federation). He obtained his M.S. (1984) and Ph.D. (1987) in Moscow Institute of Engineering and Physics with topics in high energy physics. After finishing PhD he changed the field of research to superfluidity and superconductivity in condensed matter systems, and then to the quantum Hall Effect, both integer and fractional. Since 1998 he works in the field of ultra-cold atomic and molecular gases. From 2008 M. Baranov is a senior scientist in the group of Prof. Dr. P. Zoller at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Innsbruck, and from 2016 a University Assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Innsbruck. His present research interests are related to many-body quantum phenomena in atomic and molecular gases.

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