UC Santa Barbara

The extreme tunability and control that atomic physics provides makes quantum gases

ideal platforms for experimentally realizing novel synthetic materials beyond what is

traditionally realizable in condensed matter experiments. In particular, the ability to

control interparticle interactions allows for the realization of long lived nonequilibrium

states, and strong periodic modulation of lattice potentials realizes novel Floquet matter.

In this thesis I shall present a series of experiments studying the dynamics of ultracold

lithium in modulated and static one-dimensional optical lattices. First, I present an

overview of the experimental apparatus which includes a description of the generation of

our Bose-Einstein condensate and optical lattices. Then I step through four experiments

which we conducted. The rst two involve studying spatial dynamics in static optical

lattices in the ground and the excited bands which realize position-space Bloch oscillations

and a relativistic harmonic oscillator respectively. The third experiment studies transport

in Floquet hybridized optical lattice Bloch bands, and the fourth experiment investigates

prethermalization in strongly modulated lattices with tunable interactions.