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arXiv:0912.3803 · Physical Review A

Thermometry and signatures of strong correlations from Raman spectroscopy of fermionic atoms in optical lattices

Jean-Sébastien Bernier, Tung-Lam Dao, Corinna Kollath, Antoine Georges, Pablo S. Cornaglia

Published Jun 10, 2010• 10 citations
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Abstract

A method is proposed to directly measure the temperature of a gas of weakly interacting fermionic atoms loaded into an optical lattice. This technique relies on Raman spectroscopy and is applicable to experimentally relevant temperature regimes. Additionally, a similar spectroscopy scheme can be used to obtain information on the quasiparticle properties and Hubbard bands of the metallic and Mott-insulating states of interacting fermionic spin mixtures. These two methods provide experimentalists with probes to accurately characterize fermionic quantum gases confined to optical lattices.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.063618

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A method is proposed to directly measure the temperature of a gas of weakly interacting fermionic atoms loaded into an optical lattice. This technique relies on Raman spectroscopy and is applicable to experimentally relevant temperature regimes. Additionally, a similar spectroscopy scheme can be used to obtain information on the quasiparticle properties and Hubbard bands of the metallic and Mott-insulating states of interacting fermionic spin mixtures. These two methods provide experimentalists with probes to accurately characterize fermionic quantum gases confined to optical lattices.
In the past fifteen years ultracold atoms confined to optical lattices, which are artificial crystals of light, have proven to be powerful tools in the study of strongly correlated many-body systems widely known from a condensed matter context. The detailed knowledge, high tunability and control of microscopic parameters has enabled the creation and control of highly non-trivial quantum systems for which a direct comparison of model calculations to experimental measurements is now possible. In order to gain precise information on the properties of ultracold gases in optical lattices, many powerful methods have been developed. In particular spectroscopic methods have enabled to probe different characteristic excitations. However, many fascinating properties of strongly interacting quantum many-body systems are not yet fully characterized. Therefore, this thesis explores further possibilities of lattice modulation spectroscopy which is a time-periodic modulation of the optical lattice amplitude. We theoretically investigate the response of different (mostly one-dimensional) cold atom systems to a lattice modulation by means of the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and different analytical approximations. In addition to the normal lattice modulation, we consider a superlattice modulation scheme where the lattice amplitude is modulated in a dimerized fashion, coupling to a certain class of excitations in the system. The lattice modulation spectroscopy is a versatile probe which we use to study different situations relevant for experimental applications. We show that a detection of signatures of the exotic bond order wave phase is feasible in a system of interacting fermions on a one-dimensional optical lattice with staggered energy offset. Moreover, we demonstrate that a temperature measurement of fermions confined to an optical lattice is possible as well as a determination of the interaction strength of bosonic atoms confined to a one-dimensional optical lattice. In addition, various excitations in all these systems are investigated in detail.
Strongly-correlated electron systems generate some of the richest phenomena and most challenging theoretical problems studied in physics. One approach to understanding these systems is with ultracold fermionic atoms in optical lattices, which can provide a level of control and ways of observing strongly-correlated fermionic systems that are not accessible with conventional materials. This thesis describes the development of an experimental technique where a quantum gas of fermionic 6Li atoms is prepared in a two-dimensional optical lattice and each atom can be frozen in place and imaged with single-site resolution. Combining a vacuum-compatible large numerical aperture microscope with Raman sideband cooling enables site-resolved fluorescence imaging with high fidelity. We observe several phases of the Hubbard model, including band and Mott insulators. The observed in-situ occupation distributions of atoms in the lattice are compared to theory with unprecedented detail and are used to determine the thermodynamic properties of the system. By combining site-resolved imaging with a spin-removal technique, we observe antiferromagnetic correlations in the Hubbard model with single-site resolution. We observe, for the first time in cold atom systems, beyond-nearest-neighbor magnetic correlations, which provide a direct measurement of the correlation length. We also present detailed measurements of the formation of correlations during lattice loading.
Low temperatures are necessary for the observation of strongly correlated quantum phases of fermionic atoms in optical lattices. We analyze how the temperature of a Fermi gas is altered when the fermions are loaded into an optical lattice with an underlying harmonic confining potential, and show how the temperature can be measured. The temperature of the atoms in the optical lattice determines the fraction of doubly occupied lattice sites of a two-component Fermi gas. We analytically calculate this quantity and find a strong temperature dependence. This fraction can be measured by studying the production of molecules in the lattice using a Feshbach resonance, which allows for precise thermometry of atoms in an optical lattice.
We theoretically consider noninteracting fermions confined to optical lattices and apply a lattice amplitude modulation that we choose to be either homogeneous or of superlattice geometry. We study the atom excitation rate to higher Bloch bands which can be measured by adiabatic band mapping. We find that the atom excitation rate shows a clear signature of the temperature-dependent Fermi distribution in the lowest band of the equilibrium lattice as excitations are quasimomentum resolved. Based on typical experimental parameters and incorporating a trapping potential, we find that thermometry of one- and two-dimensional systems is within the reach of present-day experiments. Our scheme is valid down to temperatures of a few percent of the hopping amplitude comparable to the N\'eel temperature in interacting systems.
We calculate experimentally relevant properties of trapped fermionic alkaline-earth-metal atoms in an optical lattice, modeled by the SU(N)(N)(N) Hubbard model. We employ a high-temperature expansion that is accurate when the temperature is larger than the tunneling rate, similar to current regimes in ultracold atom experiments. In addition to exploring the Mott insulator-metal crossover, we calculate final temperatures achieved by the standard experimental protocol of adiabatically ramping from a noninteracting gas, as a function of initial gas temperature. Of particular experimental interest, we find that increasing NNN for fixed particle numbers and initial temperatures gives substantially colder Mott insulators after the adiabatic ramping, up to more than a factor of 5 for relevant parameters. This cooling happens for all NNN, fixing the initial entropy, or for all $N\ensuremath{\lesssim}20$ (the exact value depends on dimensionality), at fixed, experimentally relevant initial temperatures.
The fermionic Hubbard model plays a fundamental role in the description of strongly correlated materials. We have realized this Hamiltonian in a repulsively interacting spin mixture of ultracold (40)K atoms in a three-dimensional (3D) optical lattice. Using in situ imaging and independent control of external confinement and lattice depth, we were able to directly measure the compressibility of the quantum gas in the trap. Together with a comparison to ab initio dynamical mean field theory calculations, we show how the system evolves for increasing confinement from a compressible dilute metal over a strongly interacting Fermi liquid into a band-insulating state. For strong interactions, we find evidence for an emergent incompressible Mott insulating phase. This demonstrates the potential to model interacting condensed-matter systems using ultracold fermionic atoms.