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Title: Phase controlled metal–insulator transition in multi-leg quasiperiodic optical lattices

Journal Article · · Annals of Physics
 [1];  [2]
  1. Department of Physics, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal-731 235 (India)
  2. Department of Physics, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal-741 235 (India)

A tight-binding model of a multi-leg ladder network with a continuous quasiperiodic modulation in both the site potential and the inter-arm hopping integral is considered. The model mimics optical lattices where ultra-cold fermionic or bosonic atoms are trapped in double well potentials. It is observed that, the relative phase difference between the on-site potential and the inter-arm hopping integral, which can be controlled by the tuning of the interfering laser beams trapping the cold atoms, can result in a mixed spectrum of one or more absolutely continuous subband(s) and point like spectral measures. This opens up the possibility of a re-entrant metal–insulator transition. The subtle role played by the relative phase difference mentioned above is revealed, and we corroborate it numerically by working out the multi-channel electronic transmission for finite two-, and three-leg ladder networks. The extension of the calculation beyond the two-leg case is trivial, and is discussed in the work. - Graphical abstract: ▪ - Highlights: • Phase controlled metal–insulator transition is discussed. • An analytical prescription is given to understand MI transition. • Our work provides a way of designing experiments involving laser beams.

OSTI ID:
22701507
Journal Information:
Annals of Physics, Vol. 382; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-4916
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English