Deterministic Preparation of a Tunable Few-Fermion System

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the deterministic creation and control of a tunable few-fermion quantum system with high fidelity, enabling advanced quantum simulations and potential quantum information processing applications.

Contribution

It introduces a method to prepare and tune few-fermion systems with high fidelity, advancing quantum simulation and control of strongly correlated particles.

Findings

Achieved deterministic preparation of 1-10 fermions with ~90% fidelity.

Tuned inter-particle interactions using Feshbach resonance.

Observed interaction-induced energy shifts in atom pairs.

Abstract

Systems consisting of few interacting fermions are the building blocks of matter with atoms and nuclei being the most prominent examples. We have created an artificial few-body quantum system with complete control over the system's quantum state using ultracold fermionic atoms in an optical dipole trap. We deterministically prepare ground state systems consisting of one to ten particles with fidelities of ~ 90%. We can tune the inter-particle interactions to arbitrary values using a Feshbach resonance and have observed the interaction-induced energy shift for a pair of repulsively interacting atoms. With this work, quantum simulation of strongly correlated fewbody systems has become possible. In addition, these microscopic quantum systems can be used as building blocks for scalable quantum information processing.