We study the zero-temperature phase diagram of a gas of bosonic ${}^{87}\text{R}\text{b}$ atoms in two-color superlattice potentials starting directly from the experimental parameters, such as wavelengths and intensities of the two lasers generating the superlattice. In a first step, we map the experimental setup to a Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian with site-dependent parameters through approximate band-structure calculations. In the second step, we solve the many-body problem using the density-matrix renormalization-group approach and compute observables such as energy gap, condensate fraction, maximum number fluctuations, and visibility of interference fringes. We study the phase diagram as function of the laser intensities $s_2$ and $s_1$ as control parameters and show that all relevant quantum phases, i.e., superfluid, Mott-insulator, and quasi-Bose-glass phase, and the transitions between them can be investigated through a variation of these intensities alone.

• Received 28 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.80.023621