Site-resolved Imaging of Fermionic Lithium-6 in an Optical Lattice

TL;DR

This paper reports the first site-resolved imaging of fermionic lithium-6 atoms in an optical lattice, utilizing a novel 3D Raman sideband cooling technique to achieve high-fidelity detection and enable studies of quantum many-body physics.

Contribution

Introduces a new laser cooling method for lithium-6 that allows for high-fidelity, site-resolved imaging in optical lattices, facilitating direct observation of fermionic correlations.

Findings

Achieved >95% site occupation detection fidelity.

Demonstrated effective 3D Raman sideband cooling for lithium-6.

Enabled direct measurement of local particle correlations.

Abstract

We demonstrate site-resolved imaging of individual fermionic lithium-6 atoms in a 2D optical lattice. To preserve the density distribution during fluorescence imaging, we simultaneously cool the atoms with 3D Raman sideband cooling. This laser cooling technique, demonstrated here for the first time for lithium-6 atoms, also provides a pathway to rapid low-entropy filling of an optical lattice. We are able to determine the occupation of individual lattice sites with a fidelity >95%, enabling direct, local measurement of particle correlations in Fermi lattice systems. This ability will be instrumental for creating and investigating low-temperature phases of the Fermi-Hubbard model, including antiferromagnets and d-wave superfluidity.