We consider ultracold bosons in a two-dimensional square optical lattice described by the Bose-Hubbard model. In addition, an external time-dependent sinusoidal force is applied to the system, which shakes the lattice along one of the diagonals. The effect of the shaking is to renormalize the nearest-neighbor-hopping coefficients, which can be arbitrarily reduced, can vanish, or can even change sign, depending on the shaking parameter. Therefore, it is necessary to account for higher-order-hopping terms, which are renormalized differently by the shaking, and to introduce anisotropy into the problem. We show that the competition between these different hopping terms leads to finite-momentum condensates with a momentum that may be tuned via the strength of the shaking. We calculate the boundaries between the Mott insulator and the different superfluid phases and present the time-of-flight images expected to be observed experimentally. Our results open up possibilities for the realization of bosonic analogs of the Fulde, Ferrel, Larkin, and Ovchinnikov phase describing inhomogeneous superconductivity.

• Received 3 May 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.013607