Demonstration of a controllable three-dimensional Brownian motor in symmetric potentials

Abstract

We demonstrate a Brownian motor, based on cold atoms in optical lattices, where isotropic random fluctuations are rectified in order to induce controlled atomic motion in arbitrary directions. In contrast to earlier demonstrations of ratchet effects, our Brownian motor operates in potentials that are spatially and temporally symmetric, but where spatiotemporal symmetry is broken by a phase shift between the potentials and asymmetric transfer rates between them. The Brownian motor is demonstrated in three dimensions and the noise-induced drift is controllable in our system.