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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
State preparation and dynamics of ultracold atoms in higher lattice orbitals
Torben Müller1, Simon Fölling, Artur Widera
1Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Staudingerweg 7, 55118 Mainz, Germany.
Abstract:
We report on the realization of a multiorbital system with ultracold atoms in the excited bands of a 3D optical lattice by selectively controlling the band population along a given lattice direction. The lifetime of the atoms in the excited band is found to be considerably longer (10-100 times) than the characteristic time scale for intersite tunneling, thus opening the path for orbital selective many-body physics with ultracold atoms. Upon exciting the atoms from an initial lowest band Mott-insulating state to higher lying bands, we observe the dynamical emergence of coherence in 1D (and 2D), compatible with Bose-Einstein condensation to a nonzero momentum state.
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