Observing localisation in a 2D quasicrystalline optical lattice

Abstract

Quasicrystals are long-range ordered but not periodic, representing an interesting middle ground between order and disorder. We experimentally and numerically study the ground state of non- and weakly-interacting bosons in an eightfold symmetric quasicrystalline optical lattice. We find extended states for weak lattices but observe a localisation transition at a lattice depth of $V_0=1.78(2)\,E_{\mathrm{rec}}$ for the non-interacting system. We identify this transition by measuring the timescale required for adiabatic loading into the lattice, which diverges at the critical lattice depth for localisation. Gross-Pitaevskii simulations show that in interacting systems the transition is shifted to deeper lattices, as expected from superfluid order counteracting localisation. Our experimental results are consistent with such a mean-field shift. Quasiperiodic potentials, lacking conventional rare regions, provide the ideal testing ground to realise many-body localisation in 2D.