Anisotropic 2D diffusive expansion of ultracold atoms in a disordered potential

  • M. Robert-De-Saint-Vincent
  • , J. P. Brantut
  • , B. Allard
  • , T. Plisson
  • , L. Pezzé
  • , L. Sanchez-Palencia
  • , A. Aspect
  • , T. Bourdel
  • , P. Bouyer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study the horizontal expansion of vertically confined ultracold atoms in the presence of disorder. Vertical confinement allows us to realize a situation with a few coupled harmonic oscillator quantum states. The disordered potential is created by an optical speckle at an angle of 30° with respect to the horizontal plane, resulting in an effective anisotropy of the correlation lengths of a factor of 2 in that plane. We observe diffusion leading to non-Gaussian density profiles. Diffusion coefficients, extracted from the experimental results, show anisotropy and strong energy dependence, in agreement with numerical calculations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number220602
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume104
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jun 2010
Externally publishedYes

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