Ultracold Atom Optics and Quantum Transport

Trapped ensembles of neutral atoms at nanoKelvin temperatures form pristine material with which to model complex quantum systems and build new ones for fundamental physics and applications. Standing waves of laser light create perfect periodic structures for such ultracold atoms. Operated in pulsed mode, these optical standing wave “gratings” can be used as beam splitters and mirrors to design “atom optics” for matter waves. Atom interferometers built in this manner can be used for precision sensing of inertial effects and fields such as gravity, and also for fundamental physics tests. Operated in continuous mode, these same optical lattices can be used to engineer Hamiltonians for ultracold atoms in order to investigate quantum transport phenomena and for quantum simulation. After an introduction to the ultracold atoms field, I will discuss some of our experiments highlighting a quantum transport approach to precision atom optics and interferometry. I will also discuss our recent observation of many-body dynamical delocalization, a quantum transport phenomenon observed using an atom optics approach.