A pulsed ion microscope to probe quantum gases

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high-resolution pulsed ion microscope capable of probing quantum gases with sub-200 nm resolution, overcoming optical wavelength limitations, and enabling 3D imaging and advanced quantum gas studies.

Contribution

The development of a versatile pulsed ion microscope with high spatial resolution and large depth of field for in situ quantum gas analysis.

Findings

Resolved atoms in an optical lattice with 532 nm spacing

Achieved an estimated resolution of approximately 200 nm

Demonstrated pulsed operation mode for future 3D imaging

Abstract

The advent of the quantum gas microscope allowed for the in situ probing of ultracold gaseous matter on an unprecedented level of spatial resolution. The study of phenomena on ever smaller length scales as well as the probing of three-dimensional systems is, however, fundamentally limited by the wavelength of the imaging light, for all techniques based on linear optics. Here we report on a high-resolution ion microscope as a versatile and powerful experimental tool to investigate quantum gases. The instrument clearly resolves atoms in an optical lattice with a spacing of $532\,\text{nm}$ over a field of view of 50 sites and offers an extremely large depth of field on the order of at least $70\,\mu\text{m}$. With a simple model, we extract an upper limit for the achievable resolution of approximately $200\,\text{nm}$ from our data. We demonstrate a pulsed operation mode which in the future will enable 3D imaging and allow for the study of ionic impurities and Rydberg physics.