Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 5: Ultracold Atoms: Manipulation and Detection

Q 5.1: Talk

Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:30–10:45, SCH 251

Single-spin addressing in an atomic Mott insulator — •C. Weitenberg, M. Endres, J. F. Sherson, M. Cheneau, P. Schauß, T. Fukuhara, I. Bloch, and S. Kuhr — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching

The quest to address single sites of an optical lattice has a longstanding history in the field of ultracold atoms. Here we report on the achievement of full two-dimensional single-site spin control in an optical lattice with sub-diffraction limited spatial resolution. We use the differential light shift of a tightly focused laser beam to shift selected atoms into resonance with a microwave field. Starting from a Mott insulator with unity filling we are able to create arbitrary spin patterns. To demonstrate that our scheme leaves most of the atoms in the motional ground state, we observe the one-dimensional tunneling dynamics of the addressed atoms and discriminate the dynamics of the ground state and the first excited band. Our scheme opens the path to a wide range of novel applications from quantum dynamics of spin impurities, entropy transport, implementation of novel cooling schemes, and engineering of quantum many-body phases to quantum information processing.