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Atomtronics: An ultracold analogue of semiconductor devices

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Abstract

A collection of ultracold atoms subject to a spatially periodic potential energy can exhibit behavior analogous to electrons in a crystal lattice. This fact was profoundly established by the demonstration of the superfluid to Mott-insulator transition of atoms in an optical lattice. An optical lattice consists of atoms subject to a periodic potential produced by interfering laser beams. The analogy between ultracold atoms in optical lattices and electrons in crystal lattices is manifestly a rich one. Recently, we have made a a proposal to extend the analogy to doped semiconductor materials. Lattice ”defects” achieve behaviors similar to P-type and N-type semiconductor materials. Naturally the interest is to adjoin P-type and N-type atoms lattices to produce an atom diode, and then an NPN or PNP lattice ”sandwich” to achieve bipolar transistor-like behavior for ultracold atoms. Such heterogeneous structures can indeed be made to mimic their electronic counterparts.

© 2006 Optical Society of America

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