Welcome to the Rey Theory Group
An optical lattice is essentially an artificial crystal of light - a periodic intensity
pattern that is formed by the interference of two or more laser beams.
The movie above represents a lattice as some of the laser parameters are varied.
Our research group focuses on ultracold atoms and molecules loaded in optical lattices. Optical lattices are periodic trapping potentials created by illuminating the atoms and molecules with laser beams. Atoms in optical lattices are analogous to electrons in solid state crystals. Their big advantage is that these "artificial crystals of light" are perfectly clean and highly controllable. Therefore, they are ideal for exploring a whole range of fundamental phenomena that are extremely difficult — or impossible — to study in traditional condensed-matter systems. Our goal is to understand how to control and manipulate these systems, with the goal of engineering different quantum phases such as superfluids, insulators, quantum magnets, and topological matter. We plan to use our artificial light crystals to probe the physics of strongly correlated bosonic and fermionic systems and nonequilibrium phenomena. Additionally, we study how to generate and manipulate entanglement in quantum systems for use in quantum information processing and precision measurements.
