Fock space exploration by angle resolved transmission through quantum diffraction grating of cold atoms in an optical lattice

• Main Authors: Agarwala, Adhip, Nath, Madhurima, Lugani, Jasleen, Thyagarajan, K, Ghosh, Sankalpa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 25-05-2012
• Subjects: Physics - Quantum Gases; Physics - Quantum Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1202.5246

Phys. Rev. A 85, 063606 (2012) Light transmission or diffraction from different quantum phases of cold atoms
in an optical lattice has recently come up as a useful tool to probe such ultra
cold atomic systems. The periodic nature of the optical lattice potential
closely resembles the structure of a diffraction grating in real space, but
loaded with a strongly correlated quantum many body state which interacts with
the incident electromagnetic wave, a feature that controls the nature of the
light transmission or dispersion through such quantum medium. In this paper we
show that as one varies the relative angle between the cavity mode and the
optical lattice, the peak of the transmission spectrum through such cavity also
changes reflecting the statistical distribution of the atoms in the illuminated
sites. Consequently the angle resolved transmission spectrum of such quantum
diffraction grating can provide a plethora of information about the Fock space
structure of the many body quantum state of ultra cold atoms in such an optical
cavity that can be explored in current state of the art experiments.