A glimpse of quantum phenomena in optical lattices.

Optical lattices in cold atomic systems offer an excellent setting for realizing quantum condensed matter phenomena. Here, a glimpse of such a setting is provided for the non-specialist. Some basic aspects of cold atomic gases and optical lattices are reviewed. Quantum many-body physics is explored in the case of interacting bosons on a lattice. Quantum behaviour in the presence of a potential landscape is examined for three different cases: a hexagonal lattice potential, a quasi-periodic potential and a disorder potential.