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News Release 09-155
"Wedding Cake" Images Display Transitions between Exotic Quantum States
From superfluid to Mott insulator, density profiles of ultracold atomic gases reveal secrets of quantum phase transitions
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The 'wedding cake' structure shows the density profile of a heterogeneous mixture of Mott insulating, superfluid and normal phases of ultracold cesium atoms trapped in an optical lattice. "The different layers of the cake are formed by Mott insulating domains of successively higher particle numbers, and their flatness is a result of their incompressibility," said Dr. Nathan Gemelke, of the University of Chicago.
"The edges as we go from one layer of the cake to the next are superfluid regions, where the density varies continuously," he said. "As the temperature is increased, the cake melts like a multi-tiered ice cream cake, and smears out the edges of the layers."
Credit: Cheng Chin, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago
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A high-resolution absorption image of a heterogeneous sample of Mott-insulating, superfluid and normal gases of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. Each pixel corresponds to a square 660nm on a side, and the optical resolution is 1.3 micron.
Credit: Cheng Chin, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago
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Researchers from the University of Chicago, from left to right, Nathan Gemelke, Chen-Lung Hung, Xibo Zhang, Cheng Chin. To left is the apparatus.
Credit: Cheng Chin, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago
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