Quantum Gas Microscopy of Fermions in the Continuum

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new imaging technique for atomic quantum many-body systems in the continuum, enabling in situ resolution of individual particles and detailed correlation measurements in fermionic gases.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel method for continuum quantum gas microscopy, extending high-resolution imaging beyond discretized lattice systems.

Findings

Resolved the full spatial form of density correlation functions.

Observed the Fermi hole shape as a function of temperature.

Demonstrated in situ imaging of a two-dimensional atomic Fermi gas.

Abstract

Microscopically probing quantum many-body systems by resolving their constituent particles is essential for understanding quantum matter. In most physical systems, distinguishing individual particles, such as electrons in solids, or neutrons and quarks in neutron stars, is impossible. Atom-based quantum simulators offer a unique platform that enables the imaging of each particle in a many-body system. Until now, however, this capability has been limited to quantum systems in discretized space such as optical lattices and tweezers, where spatial degrees of freedom are quantized. Here, we introduce a novel method for imaging atomic quantum many-body systems in the continuum, allowing for in situ resolution of every particle. We demonstrate the capabilities of our approach on a two-dimensional atomic Fermi gas. We probe the density correlation functions, resolving their full spatial functional form, and reveal the shape of the Fermi hole arising from Pauli exclusion as a function of temperature. Our method opens the door to probing strongly-correlated quantum gases in the continuum with unprecedented spatial resolution, providing in situ access to spatially resolved correlation functions of arbitrarily high order across the entire system.