2007/03/31 by P. B. Blakie, A. Bezett, P. Buonsante
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.75.063609
published as Phys. Rev. A 75, 063609 (2007) · 11 pages, 9 figures
openalex publication_date 2007/06/11 · arxiv created 2007/06/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In this paper we derive an analytic approximation to the density of states for atoms in a combined optical lattice and harmonic trap potential as used in current experiments with quantum degenerate gases. We compare this analytic density of states to numerical solutions and demonstrate its validity regime. Our work explicitly considers the role of higher bands and when they are important in quantitative analysis of this system. Applying our density of states to a degenerate Fermi gas, we consider how adiabatic loading from a harmonic trap into the combined harmonic-lattice potential affects the degeneracy temperature. Our results suggest that occupation of excited bands during loading should lead to more favorable conditions for realizing degenerate Fermi gases in optical lattices.