Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

Laser cooling of atoms has made possible to study alarge variety of complex quantum systems under optimal conditions. In particular, using potentials created by light, we can study spatially periodic "optical lattices" which look like a crystal. Such an optical potential can be used for realizing "chaotic" quantum systems. We show how a quantum chaotic system realized with cold atoms allows to explore the metal-insulator Anderson transition in three dimensions, and to measure the critical exponent of this transition for the first time with non-interacting matter waves . We also study the transport properties at the critical point.