David Weld

Probing Quantum Dynamics with Strongly-driven Degenerate Gases

Ultracold neutral atoms offer a nearly ideal context for the investigation of quantum systems driven far from equilibrium.  I will present results from a sequence of experiments on cold lithium in optical lattices, starting with the first experimental realization of a relativistic harmonic oscillator, moving on to Floquet engineering of band structure and transport properties, and concluding with the observation of Floquet prethermalization in driven interacting quantum matter.