No Arabic abstract
We propose and realize a deeply sub-wavelength optical lattice for ultracold neutral atoms using $N$ resonantly Raman-coupled internal degrees of freedom. Although counter-propagating lasers with wavelength $lambda$ provided two-photon Raman coupling, the resultant lattice-period was $lambda/2N$, an $N$-fold reduction as compared to the conventional $lambda/2$ lattice period. We experimentally demonstrated this lattice built from the three $F=1$ Zeeman states of a $^{87}{rm Rb}$ Bose-Einstein condensate, and generated a lattice with a $lambda/6= 132 {rm nm}$ period from $lambda=790 {rm nm}$ lasers. Lastly, we show that adding an additional RF coupling field converts this lattice into a superlattice with $N$ wells uniformly spaced within the original $lambda/2$ unit cell.
Quantum antiferromagnets are of broad interest in condensed matter physics as they provide a platform for studying exotic many-body states including spin liquids and high-temperature superconductors. Here, we report on the creation of a one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet with ultracold bosons. In a two-component Bose-Hubbard system, we switch the sign of the spin-exchange interaction and realize the isotropic antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model in an extended 70-site chain. Starting from a low-entropy Neel-ordered state, we use optimized adiabatic passage to approach the bosonic antiferromagnet. We demonstrate the establishment of antiferromagnetism by probing the evolution of the staggered magnetization and spin correlations of the system. Compared with condensed matter systems, ultracold gases in optical lattices can be microscopically engineered and measured, offering significant advantages for exploring bosonic magnetism and spin dynamics.
The mean-field treatment of the Bose-Hubbard model predicts properties of lattice-trapped gases to be insensitive to the specific lattice geometry once system energies are scaled by the lattice coordination number $z$. We test this scaling directly by comparing coherence properties of $^{87}$Rb gases that are driven across the superfluid to Mott insulator transition within optical lattices of either the kagome ($z=4$) or the triangular ($z=6$) geometries. The coherent fraction measured for atoms in the kagome lattice is lower than for those in a triangular lattice with the same interaction and tunneling energies. A comparison of measurements from both lattices agrees quantitatively with the scaling prediction. We also study the response of the gas to a change in lattice geometry, and observe the dynamics as a strongly interacting kagome-lattice gas is suddenly hole-doped by introducing the additional sites of the triangular lattice.
We analyze the possibility to prepare a Heisenberg antiferromagnet with cold fermions in optical lattices, starting from a band insulator and adiabatically changing the lattice potential. The numerical simulation of the dynamics in 1D allows us to identify the conditions for success, and to study the influence that the presence of holes in the initial state may have on the protocol. We also extend our results to two-dimensional systems.
A scheme is presented to perform an entangling gate between two atomic ensembles or Bose-Einstein condensates in a optical cavity with a common optical mode. The method involves using a generalized Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) to adiabatically evolve the ground state. We show that dark states exist for any atom number within the cavities, and find that the operation produces an unusual type of evolution where the minimum of the number of atoms between two levels transitions to another state. This produces a unconventional type of entangling Hamiltonian which creates a phase depending on the minimum operation. We analyze its reliability under a variety of conditions ranging from the ideal decoherence-free case to that including photon loss and spontaneous emission. Ways of combating decoherence are analyzed and the amount of entanglement that is generated is calculated.
Ring exchange is an elementary interaction for modeling unconventional topological matters which hold promise for efficient quantum information processing. We report the observation of four-body ring-exchange interactions and the topological properties of anyonic excitations within an ultracold atom system. A minimum toric code Hamiltonian in which the ring exchange is the dominant term, was implemented by engineering a Hubbard Hamiltonian that describes atomic spins in disconnected plaquette arrays formed by two orthogonal superlattices. The ring-exchange interactions were resolved from the dynamical evolutions in the spin orders, matching well with the predicted energy gaps between two anyonic excitations of the spin system. A braiding operation was applied to the spins in the plaquettes and an induced phase $1.00(3)pi$ in the four-spin state was observed, confirming $frac{1}{2}$-anynoic statistics. This work represents an essential step towards studying topological matters with many-body systems and the applications in quantum computation and simulation.