Fermionization and Mott-insulator formation in fermion trimers loaded in one-dimensional optical lattices

Abstract

The behavior of small clusters of one spin-up and two spin-down fermions with unlike-spin repulsive interactions in one-dimensional optical lattices was calculated using a diffusion Monte Carlo technique. We considered also a harmonic potential in the longitudinal direction to make our system resemble the standard experimental setups. When the interparticle repulsion is strong enough, the onset of fermionization is observed irrespective of the optical lattice parameters considered, in line with previous results for pure harmonic confinement. However, fermionization can also be seen even for small interparticle couplings if the optical potential is deep enough. In addition, for certain values of the wavelengths and the potential depths defining the lattice, Mott insulators in the fermionization limit with only three atoms were found.