An energy-resolved atomic scanning probe

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method combining atomic and tunneling techniques to measure the local density of states in atomic systems with both spatial and energy resolution, applicable to various complex quantum systems.

Contribution

It presents a new operational definition of LDOS using particle siphoning rates, enabling detailed visualization of energy and spatial dependence in atomic systems.

Findings

Provides a quantitative method for LDOS measurement.

Applicable to interacting and non-interacting systems.

Suitable for visualizing complex quantum lattice models.

Abstract

We propose a method to probe the local density of states (LDOS) of atomic systems that provides both spatial and energy resolution. The method combines atomic and tunneling techniques to supply a simple, yet quantitative and operational, definition of the LDOS for both interacting and non-interacting systems: It is the rate at which particles can be siphoned from the system of interest by a narrow energy band of non-interacting states contacted locally to the many-body system of interest. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices are a natural platform for implementing this broad concept to visualize the energy and spatial dependence of the atom density in interacting, inhomogeneous lattices. This includes models of strongly correlated condensed matter systems, as well as ones with non-trivial topologies.