Coherent transport of atomic wave packets in amplitude-modulated vertical optical lattices

Abstract

We report on the realization of dynamical control of transport for ultra-cold Sr88 atoms loaded in an accelerated and amplitude-modulated 1D optical lattice. We tailor the energy dispersion of traveling wave packets and reversibly switch between Wannier-Stark localization and driven transport based on coherent tunneling. Within a Loschmidt-echo scheme where the atomic group velocities are reversed at once, we demonstrate a novel mirror for matter waves working independently of the momentum state and discuss possible applications to force measurements at micrometric scales.