
arXiv: 0908.1182
Disorder can profoundly affect the transport properties of a wide range of quantum materials. Presently, there is significant disagreement regarding the effect of disorder on transport in the disordered Bose-Hubbard (DBH) model, which is the paradigm used to theoretically study disorder in strongly correlated bosonic systems. We experimentally realize the DBH model by using optical speckle to introduce precisely known, controllable, and fine-grained disorder to an optical lattice5. Here, by measuring the dissipation strength for transport, we discover a disorder-induced SF-to-insulator (IN) transition in this system, but we find no evidence for an IN-to-SF transition. Emergence of the IN at disorder strengths several hundred times the tunnelling energy agrees with a predicted SF--Bose glass (BG) transition from recent quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) work. Both the SF--IN transition and correlated changes in the atomic quasimomentum distribution--which verify a simple model for the interplay of disorder and interactions in this system--are phenomena new to the unit filling regime explored in this work, compared with the high filling limit probed previously. We find that increasing disorder strength generically leads to greater dissipation in the regime of mixed SF and Mott-insulator (MI) phases, excluding predictions of a disorder-induced, or "re-entrant," SF (RSF). While the absence of an RSF may be explained by the effect of finite temperature, we strongly constrain theories by measuring bounds on the entropy per particle in the disordered lattice.
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), FOS: Physical sciences, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks, Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases
Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas), FOS: Physical sciences, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn), Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks, Condensed Matter - Quantum Gases
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 156 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 10% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% |
