Breaking the order of a Mott insulator

Rb Lab

We use a two-color lattice to break the homogeneous site occupation of an atomic Mott insulator of bosonic 87Rb. We detect the disruption of the ordered Mott domains via noise correlation analysis of the atomic density distribution after time of flight. The appearance of additional correlation peaks evidences the redistribution of the atoms into a strongly inhomogeneous insulating state, in quantitative agreement with the predictions.

V. Guarrera et al.
Noise Correlation Spectroscopy of the Broken Order of a Mott Insulating Phase
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 250403 (2008)