arXiv:2405.03226 · Comptes Rendus Physique
Dynamics of spatial phase coherence in a dissipative Bose–Hubbard atomic system
Rémy Vatré, Raphaël Bouganne, Manel Bosch Aguilera, Alexis Ghermaoui, J. Beugnon, Raphael Lopes, Fabrice Gerbier
Abstract
We investigate the loss of spatial coherence of one-dimensional bosonic gases in optical lattices illuminated by a near-resonant excitation laser. Because the atoms recoil in a random direction after each spontaneous emission, the atomic momentum distribution progressively broadens. Equivalently, the spatial correlation function (the Fourier-conjugate quantity of the momentum distribution) progressively narrows down as more photons are scattered. Here we measure the correlation function of the matter field for fixed distances corresponding to nearest-neighbor (n-n) and next-nearest-neighbor (n-n-n) sites of the optical lattice as a function of time, hereafter called n-n and n-n-n correlators. For strongly interacting lattice gases, we find that the n-n correlator C 1 decays as a power-law at long times, C 1 ∝ 1 / t α , in stark contrast with the exponential decay expected for independent particles. The power-law decay reflects a non-trivial dissipative many-body dynamics, where interactions change drastically the interplay between fluorescence destroying spatial coherence, and coherent tunnelling between neighboring sites restoring spatial coherence at short distances. The observed decay exponent α ≈ 0 . 54 ( 6 ) is in good agreement with the prediction α = 1 / 2 from a dissipative Bose–Hubbard model accounting for the fluorescence-induced decoherence. Furthermore, we find that the n-n correlator C 1 controls the n-n-n correlator C 2 through the relation C 2 ≈ C 1 2 , also in accordance with the dissipative Bose–Hubbard model.