Single-spin addressing in an atomic Mott insulator
Abstract
Ultracold atoms in optical lattices provide a versatile tool with which to investigate fundamental properties of quantum many-body systems. In particular, the high degree of control of experimental parameters has allowed the study of many interesting phenomena, such as quantum phase transitions and quantum spin dynamics. Here we demonstrate how such control can be implemented at the most fundamental level of a single spin at a specific site of an optical lattice. Using a tightly focused laser beam together with a microwave field, we were able to flip the spin of individual atoms in a Mott insulator with sub-diffraction-limited resolution, well below the lattice spacing. The Mott insulator provided us with a large two-dimensional array of perfectly arranged atoms, in which we created arbitrary spin patterns by sequentially addressing selected lattice sites after freezing out the atom distribution. We directly monitored the tunnelling quantum dynamics of single atoms in the lattice prepared along a single line, and observed that our addressing scheme leaves the atoms in the motional ground state. The results should enable studies of entropy transport and the quantum dynamics of spin impurities, the implementation of novel cooling schemes, and the engineering of quantum many-body phases and various quantum information processing applications.
Additional Information
© 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. Received 07 December 2010. Accepted 11 January 2011. Published online 16 March 2011. We thank W. Ketterle for discussions and ideas. We acknowledge the help of R. Glöckner and R. Labouvie during the construction of the experiment. We acknowledge funding by MPG, DFG, Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation, Carl-Zeiss Stiftung, EU (NAMEQUAM, AQUTE, MarieCurie Fellowships to J.F.S. and M.C.), and JSPS (Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad to T.F.). Author Contributions: All authors contributed to the acquisition and analysis of the data; C.W., M.E., J.F.S., M.C. and S.K. designed and constructed the apparatus; C.W., I.B. and S.K. wrote the manuscript. The authors declare no competing financial interests.Attached Files
Submitted - 1101.2076v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 67410
- DOI
- 10.1038/nature09827
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160527-064521287
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation
- Carl-Zeiss Stiftung
- European Research Council (ERC)
- Marie Curie Fellowship
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
- Created
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2016-05-27Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field