Atomic Bloch-Zener Oscillations and Stueckelberg Interferometry in Optical Lattices

We report on experiments investigating quantum transport and band interferometry of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice with a two-band miniband structure, realized with a Fourier-synthesized optical lattice potential. Bloch-Zener oscillations, the coherent superposition of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling between the two bands, are observed. When the relative phase between paths in different bands is varied, an interference signal is observed, demonstrating the coherence of the dynamics in the miniband system. Measured fringe patterns of this Stueckelberg interferometer allow us to interferometrically map out the band structure of the optical lattice over the full Brillouin zone.