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Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 030601 (2004) [4 pages]

Atomic Quantum Gases in Kagomé Lattices

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L. Santos1,2, M. A. Baranov1,3, J. I. Cirac4,5, H.-U. Everts1, H. Fehrmann1, and M. Lewenstein1,5
1Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany
2Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Universität Stuttgart, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany
3RRC Kurchatov Institute, 123182 Moscow, Russia
4Max Planck Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany
5Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona 08034, Spain

Received 26 January 2004; published 16 July 2004

We demonstrate the possibility of creating and controlling an ideal and trimerized optical Kagomé lattice, and study the low temperature physics of various atomic gases in such lattices. In the trimerized Kagomé lattice, a Bose gas exhibits a Mott transition with fractional filling factors, whereas a spinless interacting Fermi gas at 2/3 filling behaves as a quantum magnet on a triangular lattice. Finally, a Fermi-Fermi mixture at half-filling for both components represents a frustrated quantum antiferromagnet with a resonating-valence-bond ground state and quantum spin liquid behavior dominated by a continuous spectrum of singlet and triplet excitations. We discuss the method of preparing and observing such a quantum spin liquid employing molecular Bose condensates.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.030601
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.030601
PACS:
03.75.Ss, 03.75.Nt, 05.50.+q, 42.50.Vk