Three-dimensional Optical Lattice Research Articles

Anisotropy-driven magnetic phase transitions in SU(4)-symmetric Fermi gas in three-dimensional optical lattices

Abstract We study SU(4)-symmetric ultracold fermionic mixture in the cubic optical lattice with the variable tunneling amplitude along one particular crystallographic axis in the crossover region from the two- to three-dimensional spatial geometry. To theoretically analyze emerging magnetic phases and physical observables, we describe the system in the framework of the Fermi-Hubbard model and apply dynamical mean-field theory. We show that in two limiting cases of anisotropy there are two phases with different antiferromagnetic orderings in the zero temperature limit and determine a region of their coexistence. We also study the stability regions of different magnetically-ordered states and density profiles of the gas in the harmonic optical trap.

Suppressing electron disorder-induced heating of ultracold neutral plasma via optical lattice

Disorder-induced heating (DIH) prevents ultracold neutral plasma into the electron strong coupling regime. Here, we propose a scheme to suppress electronic DIH via optical lattice. We simulate the evolution dynamics of ultracold neutral plasma constrained by three-dimensional optical lattice using the classical molecular dynamics method. The results show that for experimentally achievable conditions, electronic DIH is suppressed by a factor of 1.3, and the Coulomb coupling strength can reach 0.8, which is approaching the strong coupling regime. Suppressing electronic DIH via optical lattice may pave a way for the research of electronic strongly coupled plasma.

Stable nonequilibrium Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in a spin-imbalanced driven-dissipative Fermi gas loaded on a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice

Stable nonequilibrium Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state in a spin-imbalanced driven-dissipative Fermi gas loaded on a three-dimensional cubic optical lattice

High-fidelity imaging of a band insulator in a three-dimensional optical lattice clock

High-fidelity imaging of a band insulator in a three-dimensional optical lattice clock

Analytic approximations to the strengths of near-threshold optical Feshbach resonances

Optical Feshbach resonances allow one to control cold atomic scattering, produce ultracold molecules, and study atomic interactions via photoassociation spectroscopy. In the limit of ultracold $s$-wave collisions, the strength of an optical Feshbach resonance can be expressed via an energy-independent parameter called the optical length. Here we give fully analytic approximate expressions for its magnitude applicable to near-threshold bound states of an excited molecular state dominated by a single resonant-dipole or van der Waals interaction. We express these magnitudes in terms of intuitive quantities, such as the laser intensity, the excited-state binding energy, the $s$-wave scattering length, and the Condon point. Additionally, we extend the utility of the optical length to associative stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in three-dimensional optical lattices by showing that the free-bound Rabi frequency induced by a laser coupling a pair of atoms in an optical lattice site can be approximately related to the trap frequency and the optical length.

Observation of an Inner-Shell Orbital Clock Transition in Neutral Ytterbium Atoms.

We observe a weakly allowed optical transition of atomic ytterbium from the ground state to the metastable state 4f^{13}5d6s^{2} (J=2) for all five bosonic and two fermionic isotopes with resolved Zeeman and hyperfine structures. This inner-shell orbital transition has been proposed as a new frequency standard as well as a quantum sensor for new physics. We find magic wavelengths through the measurement of the scalar and tensor polarizabilities and reveal that the measured trap lifetime in a three-dimensional optical lattice is 1.9(1)s, which is crucial for precision measurements. We also determine the g factor by an interleaved measurement, consistent with our relativistic atomic calculation. This work opens the possibility of an optical lattice clock with improved stability and accuracy as well as novel approaches for physics beyond the standard model.

Unitary p-wave interactions between fermions in an optical lattice.

Exchange-antisymmetric pair wavefunctions in fermionic systems can give rise to unconventional superconductors and superfluids1-3. The realization of these states in controllable quantum systems, such as ultracold gases, could enable new types of quantum simulations4-8, topological quantum gates9-11 and exotic few-body states12-15. However, p-wave and other antisymmetric interactions are weak in naturally occurring systems16,17, and their enhancement via Feshbach resonances in ultracold systems has been limited by three-body loss18-24. Here we create isolated pairs of spin-polarized fermionic atoms in a multiorbital three-dimensional optical lattice. We spectroscopically measure elastic p-wave interaction energies of strongly interacting pairs of atoms near a magnetic Feshbach resonance. The interaction strengths are widely tunable by the magnetic field and confinement strength, and yet collapse onto a universal curve when rescaled by the harmonic energy and length scales of a single lattice site. The absence of three-body processes enables the observation of elastic unitary p-wave interactions, as well as coherent oscillations between free-atom and interacting-pair states. All observations are compared both to an exact solution using a p-wave pseudopotential and to numerical solutions using an ab initio interaction potential. The understanding and control of on-site p-wave interactions provides a necessary component for the assembly of multiorbital lattice models25,26 and a starting point for investigations of how to protect such systems from three-body recombination in the presence of tunnelling, for instance using Pauli blocking and lattice engineering27,28.

Probing quantum many-body correlations by universal ramping dynamics

Ramping a physical parameter is one of the most common experimental protocols in studying a quantum system, and ramping dynamics has been widely used in preparing a quantum state and probing physical properties. Here, we present a novel method of probing quantum many-body correlation by ramping dynamics. We ramp a Hamiltonian parameter to the same target value from different initial values and with different velocities, and we show that the first-order correction on the finite ramping velocity is universal and path-independent, revealing a novel quantum many-body correlation function of the equilibrium phases at the target values. We term this method as the non-adiabatic linear response since this is the leading order correction beyond the adiabatic limit. We demonstrate this method experimentally by studying the Bose-Hubbard model with ultracold atoms in three-dimensional optical lattices. Unlike the conventional linear response that reveals whether the quasi-particle dispersion of a quantum phase is gapped or gapless, this probe is more sensitive to whether the quasi-particle lifetime is long enough such that the quantum phase possesses a well-defined quasi-particle description. In the Bose-Hubbard model, this non-adiabatic linear response is significant in the quantum critical regime where well-defined quasi-particles are absent. And in contrast, this response is vanishingly small in both superfluid and Mott insulators which possess well-defined quasi-particles. Because our proposal uses the most common experimental protocol, we envision that our method can find broad applications in probing various quantum systems.

Multifrequency optical lattice for dynamic lattice-geometry control

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are pristine model systems with a tunability and flexibility that goes beyond solid-state analogies, e.g., dynamical lattice-geometry changes allow tuning a graphene lattice into a boron-nitride lattice. However, a fast modulation of the lattice geometry remains intrinsically difficult. Here we introduce a multi-frequency lattice for fast and flexible lattice-geometry control and demonstrate it for a three-beam lattice, realizing the full dynamical tunability between honeycomb lattice, boron-nitride lattice and triangular lattice. At the same time, the scheme ensures intrinsically high stability of the lattice geometry. We introduce the concept of a geometry phase as the parameter that fully controls the geometry and observe its signature as a staggered flux in a momentum space lattice. Tuning the geometry phase allows to dynamically control the sublattice offset in the boron-nitride lattice. We use a fast sweep of the offset to transfer atoms into higher Bloch bands, and perform a new type of Bloch band spectroscopy by modulating the sublattice offset. Finally, we generalize the geometry phase concept and the multi-frequency lattice to three-dimensional optical lattices and quasi-periodic potentials. This scheme will allow further applications such as novel Floquet and quench protocols to create and probe, e.g., topological properties.

Long-lived Bell states in an array of optical clock qubits

The generation of long-lived entanglement in optical atomic clocks is one of the main goals of quantum metrology. Arrays of neutral atoms, where Rydberg-based interactions may generate entanglement between individually controlled and resolved atoms, constitute a promising quantum platform to achieve this. Here we leverage the programmable state preparation afforded by optical tweezers and the efficient strong confinement of a three-dimensional optical lattice to prepare an ensemble of strontium-atom pairs in their motional ground state. We engineer global single-qubit gates on the optical clock transition and two-qubit entangling gates via adiabatic Rydberg dressing, enabling the generation of Bell states with a state-preparation-and-measurement-corrected fidelity of 92.8(2.0)% (87.1(1.6)% without state-preparation-and-measurement correction). For use in quantum metrology, it is furthermore critical that the resulting entanglement be long lived; we find that the coherence of the Bell state has a lifetime of 4.2(6) s via parity correlations and simultaneous comparisons between entangled and unentangled ensembles. Such long-lived Bell states can be useful for enhancing metrological stability and bandwidth. In the future, atomic rearrangement will enable the implementation of many-qubit gates and cluster state generation, as well as explorations of the transverse field Ising model.

Decoherence of Atomic Ensembles in Optical Lattice Clocks by Gravity

Optical lattice clocks can now resolve the height difference below 1 mm within an atomic ensemble by means of gravitational redshift with integration over sufficient amount of time. Further improvement in the stability enables the clocks to resolve the height difference of subsystems within an atomic ensemble that is conventionally interrogated as a single coherent spin state in a single Ramsey sequence, resulting in the dephasing of the coherent spin state. This effect is observable with a clock of a stability of $\lesssim 10^{-21}$ by introducing a single-layer-resolved imaging system for a three-dimensional optical lattice, and limits the 1 s stability of the clock around $10^{-19}$ for an atomic ensemble distributing symmetrically for the three axes, which is also a signal of the decoherence. With atoms in an entangled state, this can be the first observation of the decoherence of a quantum state by a gravitational effect, and the suppression of other systematic shifts to observe this decoherence seems feasible.

Matter-wave gap solitons and vortices in three-dimensional parity-time-symmetric optical lattices

SummaryPast decades have witnessed the emergence and increasing expansion of parity-time ()-symmetric systems in diverse physical fields and beyond as they manifest entirely all-real spectra, although being non-Hermitian. Nonlinear waves in low-dimensional -symmetric non-Hermitian systems have recently been explored broadly; however, understanding these systems in higher dimensions remains abstruse and has yet to be revealed. We survey, theoretically and numerically, matter-wave nonlinear gap modes of Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interparticle interactions in three-dimensional optical lattices with emphasis on multidimensional gap solitons and vortices. Utilizing direct perturbed simulations, we address the stability and instability areas of both localized modes in the underlying linear band gap spectra. Our study provides deep and consistent understandings of the formation, structural property, and dynamics of coherent localized matter waves supported by optical lattices in multidimensional space, thus opening a way for exploring and stabilizing three-dimensional localized gap modes in non-Hermitian systems

Motion of Cold Atoms in a Labyrinth Created by a Three-Dimensional Optical Lattice

Motion of Cold Atoms in a Labyrinth Created by a Three-Dimensional Optical Lattice

Matter-Wave Gap Solitons and Vortices in Three-Dimensional Parity-Time-Symmetric Optical Lattices

Past decades have witnessed the emergence and increasing expansion of parity-time (PT )-symmetric systems in diverse physical fields and beyond as they license entirely all-real spectra, although being non-Hermitian. Nonlinear waves in low-dimensional PT -symmetric non-Hermitian systems have recently been explored broadly, whose understanding in higher dimensions remains abstruse and has yet to be revealed. We survey, theoretically and numerically, matter-wave nonlinear gap modes of Bose-Einstein condensates with repulsive interparticle interactions in three-dimensional PT optical lattices with emphasis on multidimensional gap solitons and vortices. Relying on direct perturbed simulations, we address the stability and instability areas of both localized modes in the underlying linearband gap spectra. Our study provides deep and consistent understandings of the formation, structural property, and dynamics of coherent localized matter waves supported by PT optical lattices in multidimensional space, opening a way for exploring and stabilizing three-dimensional localized gap modes in non-Hermitian systems.

Toolbox for elementary fermions with a dipolar Fermi gas in a three-dimensional optical lattice

There has been growing interest in investigating properties of elementary particles predicted by the standard model. Examples of such studies include exploring their low-energy analogs in a condensed-matter system, where they arise as collective states or quasiparticles. Here we show that a toolbox for systematically engineering the emergent elementary fermions, i.e., Dirac, Weyl, and Majorana fermions, can be built in a single atomic system composed of a spinless magnetic dipolar Fermi gas in a three-dimensional optical lattice. The designed direction-dependent dipole-dipole interaction leads to both the basic building block, i.e., in-plane $p+ip$ superfluid pairing instability, and the manipulating tool, i.e., out-of-plane Peierls instability. It is shown that the Peierls instability provides a natural way of tuning the topological nature of $p+ip$ superfluids and can transform the fermion's nature between distinct emergent particles. Our scheme should contribute to the search for elementary particles through manipulating the topology.

Studying the low-entropy Mott transition of bosons in a three-dimensional optical lattice by measuring the full momentum-space density

We report on a combined experimental and theoretical study of the low-entropy Mott transition for interacting bosons trapped in a three-dimensional (3D) cubic lattice -- namely, the interaction-induced superfluid-to-normal phase transition in the vicinity of the zero-temperature Mott transition. Our analysis relies on the measurement of the 3D momentum distribution, which allows us to extract the momentum-space density $\rho({\bf k}={\bf 0})$ at the center of the Brillouin zone. Upon varying the ratio between the interaction $U$ and the tunnelling energy $J$ across the superfluid transition, we observe that $\rho({\bf k}={\bf 0})$ exhibits a sharp transition at a value of $U/J$ consistent with the bulk prediction from quantum Monte Carlo. In addition, the variation of $\rho({\bf k}={\bf 0})$ with $U/J$ exhibits a critical behavior consistent with the expected 3D XY universality class. Our results show that the tomographic reconstruction of the momentum distribution of ultracold bosons can reveal traits of the critical behavior of the superfluid transition even in an inhomogeneous trapped system.

Topological nodal chains in optical lattices

Topological nodal rings as the simplest topological nodal lines recently have been extensively studied in optical lattices. However, the realization of complex nodal line structures like nodal chains in this system remains a crucial challenge. Here we propose an experimental scheme to realize and detect topological nodal chains in optical Raman lattices. Specifically, we construct a three-dimensional optical Raman lattice which supports next nearest-neighbor spin-orbit couplings and hosts topological nodal chains in its energy spectra. Interestingly, the realized nodal chains are protected by mirror symmetry and could be tuned into a large variety of shapes, including the inner and outer nodal chains. We also demonstrate that the shapes of the nodal chains could be detected by measuring spin polarizations. Our study opens up the possibility of exploring topological nodal-chain semimetal phases in optical lattices.

Cavity-Enhanced Atom-Photon Entanglement with Subsecond Lifetime.

A cold atomic ensemble suits well for optical quantum memories, and its entanglement with a single photon forms the building block for quantum networks that give promise for many revolutionary applications. Efficiency and lifetime are among the most important figures of merit for a memory. In this Letter, we report the realization of entanglement between an atomic ensemble and a single photon with subsecond lifetime and high efficiency. We engineer dual control modes in a ring cavity to create entanglement and make use of three-dimensional optical lattice to prolong memory lifetime. The memory efficiency is 38% for 0.1s storage. We verify the atom-photon entanglement after 1s storage by testing the Bell inequality with a result of S=2.36±0.14.

Impacts of random filling on spin squeezing via Rydberg dressing in optical clocks

We analyze spin squeezing via Rydberg dressing in optical lattice clocks with random fractional filling. We compare the achievable clock stability in different lattice geometries, including unity-filled tweezer clock arrays and fractionally filled lattice clocks with varying dimensionality. We provide practical considerations and useful tools in the form of approximate analytical expressions and fitting functions to aid in the experimental implementation of Rydberg-dressed spin squeezing. We demonstrate that spin squeezing via Rydberg dressing in one-, two-, and three-dimensional optical lattices can provide significant improvements in stability in the presence of random fractional filling.

Spatial tomography of individual atoms in a quantum gas microscope

We demonstrate a method to determine the position of single atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Atoms are sparsely loaded from a far-off-resonant optical tweezer into a few vertical planes of a cubic optical lattice positioned near a high-resolution microscope objective. In a single realization of the experiment, we pin the atoms in deep lattices and then acquire multiple fluorescence images with single-site resolution. The objective is translated between images, bringing different lattice planes of the lattice into focus. The applicability of our method is assessed using simulated fluorescence images, where the atomic filling fraction in the lattice is varied. This opens up the possibility of extending the domain of quantum simulation using quantum gas microscopes from two to three dimensions.