A Quantum Gas Microscope for Fermionic Atoms

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a quantum gas microscope for fermionic atoms, enabling single-atom resolution imaging of strongly correlated fermions in an optical lattice, facilitating advanced studies of many-body quantum phenomena.

Contribution

The authors demonstrate a novel quantum gas microscope for fermionic $^{40}$K atoms with high fidelity, combining 3D Raman sideband cooling and high-resolution optics for single-site imaging.

Findings

Achieved over 95% detection fidelity for individual fermionic atoms.

Enabled direct observation of magnetic order and correlation dynamics.

Facilitated potential studies of many-fermion entanglement and low-entropy state assembly.

Abstract

Strongly interacting fermions define the properties of complex matter at all densities, from atomic nuclei to modern solid state materials and neutron stars. Ultracold atomic Fermi gases have emerged as a pristine platform for the study of many-fermion systems. Here we realize a quantum gas microscope for fermionic $^{40}$K atoms trapped in an optical lattice, which allows one to probe strongly correlated fermions at the single atom level. We combine 3D Raman sideband cooling with high-resolution optics to simultaneously cool and image individual atoms with single lattice site resolution at a detection fidelity above $95\%$. The imaging process leaves each atom predominantly in the 3D ground state of its lattice site, inviting the implementation of a Maxwell's demon to assemble low-entropy many-body states. Single site resolved imaging of fermions enables the direct observation of magnetic order, time resolved measurements of the spread of particle correlations, and the detection of many-fermion entanglement.