85 research outputs found
Observation of Correlated Particle-Hole Pairs and String Order in Low-Dimensional Mott Insulators
Quantum phases of matter are characterized by the underlying correlations of
the many-body system. Although this is typically captured by a local order
parameter, it has been shown that a broad class of many-body systems possesses
a hidden non-local order. In the case of bosonic Mott insulators, the ground
state properties are governed by quantum fluctuations in the form of correlated
particle-hole pairs that lead to the emergence of a non-local string order in
one dimension. Using high-resolution imaging of low-dimensional quantum gases
in an optical lattice, we directly detect these pairs with single-site and
single-particle sensitivity and observe string order in the one-dimensional
case.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure
Stripe-hexagon competition in forced pattern forming systems with broken up-down symmetry
We investigate the response of two-dimensional pattern forming systems with a
broken up-down symmetry, such as chemical reactions, to spatially resonant
forcing and propose related experiments. The nonlinear behavior immediately
above threshold is analyzed in terms of amplitude equations suggested for a
and ratio between the wavelength of the spatial periodic forcing
and the wavelength of the pattern of the respective system. Both sets of
coupled amplitude equations are derived by a perturbative method from the
Lengyel-Epstein model describing a chemical reaction showing Turing patterns,
which gives us the opportunity to relate the generic response scenarios to a
specific pattern forming system. The nonlinear competition between stripe
patterns and distorted hexagons is explored and their range of existence,
stability and coexistence is determined. Whereas without modulations hexagonal
patterns are always preferred near onset of pattern formation, single mode
solutions (stripes) are favored close to threshold for modulation amplitudes
beyond some critical value. Hence distorted hexagons only occur in a finite
range of the control parameter and their interval of existence shrinks to zero
with increasing values of the modulation amplitude. Furthermore depending on
the modulation amplitude the transition between stripes and distorted hexagons
is either sub- or supercritical.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Optical Properties of Collective Excitations for Finite Chains of Trapped Atoms
Resonant dipole-dipole interaction modifies the energy and decay rate of
electronic excitations for finite one dimensional chains of ultracold atoms in
an optical lattice. We show that collective excited states of the atomic chain
can be divided into dark and bright modes, where a superradiant mode with an
enhanced collective effective dipole dominates the optical scattering. Studying
the generic case of two chain segments of different length and position
exhibits an interaction blockade and spatially structured light emission.
Ultimately, an extended system of several interfering segments models a long
chain with randomly distributed defects of vacant sites. The corresponding
emission pattern provides a sensitive tool to study structural and dynamical
properties of the system.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figure
Superfluid behaviour of a two-dimensional Bose gas
Two-dimensional (2D) systems play a special role in many-body physics.
Because of thermal fluctuations, they cannot undergo a conventional phase
transition associated to the breaking of a continuous symmetry. Nevertheless
they may exhibit a phase transition to a state with quasi-long range order via
the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism. A paradigm example is the
2D Bose fluid, such as a liquid helium film, which cannot Bose-condense at
non-zero temperature although it becomes superfluid above a critical phase
space density. Ultracold atomic gases constitute versatile systems in which the
2D quasi-long range coherence and the microscopic nature of the BKT transition
were recently explored. However, a direct observation of superfluidity in terms
of frictionless flow is still missing for these systems. Here we probe the
superfluidity of a 2D trapped Bose gas with a moving obstacle formed by a
micron-sized laser beam. We find a dramatic variation of the response of the
fluid, depending on its degree of degeneracy at the obstacle location. In
particular we do not observe any significant heating in the central, highly
degenerate region if the velocity of the obstacle is below a critical value.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Single-Atom Resolved Fluorescence Imaging of an Atomic Mott Insulator
The reliable detection of single quantum particles has revolutionized the
field of quantum optics and quantum information processing. For several years,
researchers have aspired to extend such detection possibilities to larger scale
strongly correlated quantum systems, in order to record in-situ images of a
quantum fluid in which each underlying quantum particle is detected. Here we
report on fluorescence imaging of strongly interacting bosonic Mott insulators
in an optical lattice with single-atom and single-site resolution. From our
images, we fully reconstruct the atom distribution on the lattice and identify
individual excitations with high fidelity. A comparison of the radial density
and variance distributions with theory provides a precise in-situ temperature
and entropy measurement from single images. We observe Mott-insulating plateaus
with near zero entropy and clearly resolve the high entropy rings separating
them although their width is of the order of only a single lattice site.
Furthermore, we show how a Mott insulator melts for increasing temperatures due
to a proliferation of local defects. Our experiments open a new avenue for the
manipulation and analysis of strongly interacting quantum gases on a lattice,
as well as for quantum information processing with ultracold atoms. Using the
high spatial resolution, it is now possible to directly address individual
lattice sites. One could, e.g., introduce local perturbations or access regions
of high entropy, a crucial requirement for the implementation of novel cooling
schemes for atoms on a lattice
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