Long-lived stripe pattern in tilted optical lattices

Tilted lattices show a rich variety of phenomena including Bloch oscillations and Stark localization. In the regime of a bosonic Mott insulator, the system can be mapped to a spin model with an antiferromagnetic ground state corresponding to a charge density wave. Using our new microscopy method, we observe a similar formation of stripe patterns in a weakly-interacting three-dimensional system and extend it to triangular lattices. The stripes correspond to a spontaneous symmetry breaking revealed by the formation of domain walls. Our work sets the stage for the study of general pattern formation and transport in various lattice geometries and inhomogeneous systems.