Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 57: Poster 3: Quantengase, Ultrakalte Atome, Ultrakalte Moleküle, Materiewellen Optik, Präzisionsmessungen, Metrologie

Q 57.62: Poster

Thursday, March 17, 2011, 16:30–19:30, P1

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

Ultracold atoms have attracted a lot of interest due to the excellent controllability of parameters. Extending this control down to single lattice sites is a long-standing quest in the field. Here we report on single-site-resolved spin manipulation in an atomic Mott insulator. A combination of a differential light shift caused by a tightly focused laser beam and a microwave sweep allowed us to flip the spin of selected atoms and to create arbitrary two-dimensional spin patterns starting from a Mott insulator with unity filling. To investigate the effect of our scheme on the motional state of the atoms, we directly observed the coherent tunneling dynamics of single atoms after addressing and found that most of the atoms remained in the motional ground state. Our technique opens new perspectives in 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.