Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 48: Ultra-cold Atoms, Ions and BEC III (joint session A/Q)

Q 48.8: Talk

Thursday, March 14, 2024, 16:15–16:30, HS 1010

A Fermionic Quantum Gas Microscope for the Continuum — •Joris Verstraten, Maxime Dixmerias, Kunlun Dai, Shuwei Jin, Bruno Peaudecerf, Tim de Jongh, and Tarik Yefsah — Ultracold Fermi Gases, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Paris, France

Quantum gas microscopes have emerged as powerful tools to investigate the microscopic details of ultracold many-body systems. It enables the imaging of dilute quantum gases with single atom resolution and has shed light on the properties of various systems such as the Bose- and Fermi-Hubbard models. As it relies on optical lattice potentials, this method was restricted to periodic systems, in which atoms are already constrained to move between lattice sites. On the other hand, using a deep optical lattice to pin atoms initially prepared in a continuous trap leads to a non-trivial projection on discrete positions.

Here we report on the realization of a Lithium 6 based quantum gas microscope intended to study the microscopic characteristics of ultracold Fermi gases inside the continuum regime. We investigate the fidelity of the pinning process through a dynamical study of individually prepared non-interacting atoms in free space, and are able to experimentally reconstruct the wavefunction of single atoms expanding from a locally harmonic trap. Imaging fidelity as high as 99% can also be achieved under the right experimental conditions, proving that single-atom imaging of bulk systems is not only technically possible but also a reliable method of measuring the microscopic properties of continuous sytems. This opens up the path for the study of correlations in continuous, strongly interacting systems of fermions.

Keywords: Quantum gas microscope; Ultracold Fermions; BEC-BCS crossover; Quantum simulation