Controlled preparation and detection of d-wave superfluidity in two-dimensional optical superlattices

¹  JILA and University of Colorado, Department of Physics, University of Colorado - Boulder, CO 80309, USA
²  Physics Department, Harvard University - Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

Corresponding author: arey@jilau1.colorado.edu

Received: 21 August 2009
Accepted: 12 September 2009

Abstract

d-wave Cooper pairs are believed to be the key for understanding the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates. These superconductors are an example of the emergence of strong pairing in systems with purely repulsive interactions, similar to superfluid helium 3 and the newly discovered iron oxypnictides. Despite intense studies, there is currently no consensus as to what causes the formation of d-wave Cooper pairs in these materials. Here we propose a novel experimental scheme in which recently demonstrated methods for realizing optical lattices and superlattices are combined to create and to detect, in a controlled way, ultracold-atom d-wave Cooper pairs. Our scheme starts from arrays of isolated plaquettes which incorporate the required d-wave correlations on a short length scale. By tuning the parameters of the potentials, these plaquettes can be coupled to achieve long-range d-wave superfluid correlations, finally arriving at the generic Hubbard model.