Probing magnetic order in ultracold lattice gases

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nondestructive, atom-light interface-based probing method for characterizing quantum magnetic phases in ultracold lattice gases, enabling spatially resolved spin correlation measurements.

Contribution

It presents a novel probing scheme that accesses order parameters of quantum magnetic phases in ultracold gases, applicable to both bosons and fermions, and demonstrates its effectiveness on spin-1 boson chains.

Findings

Successfully detects the complete phase diagram of spin-1 bosons.

Provides spatially resolved measurements of spin correlations.

Offers a nondemolishing method for quantum magnetic phase characterization.

Abstract

A forthcoming challenge in ultracold lattice gases is the simulation of quantum magnetism. That involves both the preparation of the lattice atomic gas in the desired spin state and the probing of the state. Here we demonstrate how a probing scheme based on atom-light interfaces gives access to the order parameters of nontrivial quantum magnetic phases, allowing us to characterize univocally strongly correlated magnetic systems produced in ultracold gases. This method, which is also nondemolishing, yields spatially resolved spin correlations and can be applied to bosons or fermions. As a proof of principle, we apply this method to detect the complete phase diagram displayed by a chain of (rotationally invariant) spin-1 bosons.