Mesoscopic transport of fermions through an engineered optical lattice connecting two reservoirs

We study transport of fermions in a system composed of a short optical lattice connecting two finite atomic reservoirs at different filling levels. The average equilibration current through the optical lattice, for strong lattice-reservoir coupling and finite temperatures, is calculated within the L...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. A, Atomic, molecular, and optical physics Atomic, molecular, and optical physics, 2012-01, Vol.85 (1), Article 013623
Main Authors: Bruderer, M., Belzig, W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Balancing
Fermions
Formalism
Joining
Mathematical analysis
Optical lattices
Reservoirs
Transport
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We study transport of fermions in a system composed of a short optical lattice connecting two finite atomic reservoirs at different filling levels. The average equilibration current through the optical lattice, for strong lattice-reservoir coupling and finite temperatures, is calculated within the Landauer formalism using a nonequilibrium Green's functions approach. We moreover determine quantum and thermal fluctuations in the transport and find significant shot-to-shot deviations from the average equilibration current. We show how to control the atomic current by engineering specific optical lattice potentials without requiring site-by-site manipulations and suggest the realization of a single level model. Based on this model we discuss the blocking effect on the atomic current resulting from weak interactions between the fermions.
ISSN:1050-2947
1094-1622
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevA.85.013623