Controlled generation of coherent matter-currents using a periodic driving field

Abstract

We study the effect of a strong, oscillating driving field on the dynamics of ultracold bosons held in an optical lattice. Modeling the system as a Bose-Hubbard model, we show how the driving field can be used to produce and maintain a coherent atomic current by controlling the phase of the intersite tunneling processes. We investigate both the stroboscopic and time-averaged behavior using Floquet theory, and demonstrate that this procedure provides a stable and precise method of controlling coherent quantum systems.