Aikawa, Kiyotaka

Date: Thursday Feb 26, 2015
Time: 14:00
Place: ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg, HPF G6
Host: Tilman Esslinger

Quantum magnets of erbium atoms

Kiyotaka Aikawa
Institut für Experimentalphysik, University of Innsbruck, Austria

In this talk, we will discuss the recent results of the erbium experiment in Innsbruck, where we observe the impact of the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction (DDI) on quantum degenerate gases. After a brief overview of the results on fermionic atoms in a three-dimensional trap, we will present the latest results on bosonic atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. We measure the on-site DDI by excitation spectroscopy and find that it depends on the orientation of the dipoles with respect to the lattice. This behavior arises because the on-site DDI is governed by the geometry of the wavefunction in each site as well as by the size of the wavefunction. Furthermore, we observe that the transition point from a superfluid to a Mott insulator also depends on the dipole orientation. For understanding our results, it is crucial to take into account the deformation of the wavefunction in each site caused by the DDI.