Fabrice Gerbier

Colloquium: Artificial gauge potentials for neutral atoms

When a neutral atom moves in a properly designed laser field, its center-of-mass motion may mimic the dynamics of a charged particle in a magnetic field, with the emergence of a Lorentz-like force. In this Colloquium the physical principles at the basis of this artificial (synthetic) magnetism are presented. The corresponding Aharonov-Bohm phase is related to the Berrys phase that emerges when the atom adiabatically follows one of the dressed states of the atom-laser interaction. Some manifestations of artificial magnetism for a cold quantum gas, in particular, in terms of vortex nucleation are discussed. The analysis is then generalized to the simulation of non-Abelian gauge potentials and some striking consequences are presented, such as the emergence of an effective spin-orbit coupling. Both the cases of bulk gases and discrete systems, where atoms are trapped in an optical lattice, are addressed.

Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds

In a pioneering experiment, Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) demonstrated that noise correlations could be used to probe the properties of a (bosonic) particle source through quantum statistics; the effect relies on quantum interference between possible detection paths for two indistinguishable particles. HBT correlations—together with their fermionic counterparts—find numerous applications, ranging from quantum optics to nuclear and elementary particle physics. Spatial HBT interferometry has been suggested as a means to probe hidden order in strongly correlated phases of ultracold atoms. Here we report such a measurement on the Mott insulator phase of a rubidium Bose gas as it is released from an optical lattice trap. We show that strong periodic quantum correlations exist between density fluctuations in the expanding atom cloud. These spatial correlations reflect the underlying ordering in the lattice, and find a natural interpretation in terms of a multiple-wave HBT interference effect. The method should provide a useful tool for identifying complex quantum phases of ultracold bosonic and fermionic atoms.

Phase coherence of an atomic mott insulator

We investigate the phase coherence properties of ultracold Bose gases in optical lattices, with special emphasis on the Mott insulating phase. We show that phase coherence on short length scales persists even deep in the insulating phase, preserving a finite visibility of the interference pattern observed after free expansion. This behavior can be attributed to a coherent admixture of particle-hole pairs to the perfect Mott state for small but finite tunneling. In addition, small but reproducible kinks are seen in the visibility, in a broad range of atom numbers. We interpret them as signatures for density redistribution in the shell structure of the trapped Mott insulator.

Formation of spatial shell structure in the superfluid to mott insulator transition

We report on the direct observation of the transition from a compressible superfluid to an incompressible Mott insulator by recording the in-trap density distribution of a Bosonic quantum gas in an optical lattice. Using spatially selective microwave transitions and spin-changing collisions, we are able to locally modify the spin state of the trapped quantum gas and record the spatial distribution of lattice sites with different filling factors. As the system evolves from a superfluid to a Mott insulator, we observe the formation of a distinct shell structure, in good agreement with theory.

Precision measurement of spin-dependent interaction strengths for spin-1 and spin-2 87Rb atoms

We report on precision measurements of spin-dependent interaction-strengths in the 87Rb spin-1 and spin-2 hyperfine ground states. Our method is based on the recent observation of coherence in the collisionally driven spin-dynamics of ultracold atom pairs trapped in optical lattices. Analysis of the Rabi-type oscillations between two spin states of an atom pair allows a direct determination of the coupling parameters in the interaction Hamiltonian. We deduce differences in scattering lengths from our data that can directly be compared to theoretical predictions in order to test interatomic potentials. Our measurements agree with the predictions within 20%. The knowledge of these coupling parameters allows one to determine the nature of the magnetic ground state. Our data imply a ferromagnetic ground state for 87Rb in the f = 1 manifold, in agreement with earlier experiments performed without the optical lattice. For 87Rb in the f = 2 manifold, the data point towards an antiferromagnetic ground state; however our error bars do not exclude a possible cyclic phase.

Probing Number Squeezing of Ultracold Atoms across the Superfluid-Mott Insulator Transition

The evolution of on-site number fluctuations of ultracold atoms in optical lattices is experimentally investigated by monitoring the suppression of spin-changing collisions across the superfluid-Mott insulator transition. For low atom numbers, corresponding to an average filling factor close to unity, large on-site number fluctuations are necessary for spin-changing collisions to occur. The continuous suppression of spin-changing collisions is thus direct evidence for the emergence of number-squeezed states. In the Mott insulator regime, we find that spin-changing collisions are suppressed until a threshold atom number, consistent with the number where a Mott plateau with doubly occupied sites is expected to form.

Heating rates for an atom in a far-detuned optical lattice

We calculate single-atom heating rates in a far-detuned optical lattice, in connection with recent experiments. We first derive a master equation, which includes a realistic atomic internal structure and a quantum treatment of the atomic motion in the lattice. The experimental feature that optical lattices are obtained by superimposing laser standing waves of different frequencies is also included, which leads to a micromotional correction to the light shift that we evaluate. We then calculate, and compare to experimental results, two heating rates, the total heating rate (which corresponds to the increase of the total mechanical energy of the atom in the lattice), and the ground-band heating rate (which corresponds to the increase of energy within the ground energy band of the lattice). The total heating rate remarkably is independent of the atomic state and of the sign of the laser detuning. In contrast, the ground-band heating rate in the deep lattice limit is strongly suppressed for blue-detuned lattices with respect to red-detuned lattices.

Adiabatic loading of a Bose–Einstein condensate in a 3D optical lattice

We experimentally investigate the adiabatic loading of a Bose–Einstein condensate into an optical lattice potential. The generation of excitations during the ramp is detected by a corresponding decrease in the visibility of the interference pattern observed after free expansion of the cloud. We focus on the superfluid regime, where we show that the limiting time scale is related to the redistribution of atoms across the lattice by single-particle tunnelling.

Coherence length of an elongated condensate - A study by matter-wave interferometry

Abstract.We measure the spatial correlation function ofnBose-Einstein condensates in the cross-over region betweennphase-coherent and strongly phase-fluctuating condensates. Wenobserve the continuous path from a Gaussian-like shape to annexponential-like shape characteristic of one-dimensionalnphase-fluctuations. The width of the spatial correlation functionnas a function of the temperature shows that the condensatencoherence length undergoes no sharp transition between these twonregimes. nxa0 n

Special issue on non-Abelian gauge fields

Building a universal quantum computer is a central goal of emerging quantum technologies and it is expected to revolutionize science and technology. Unfortunately, this future does not seem very close, however, quantum computers built for a special purpose, i.e., quantum simulators, are currently being developed in many leading laboratories. Numerous schemes for quantum simulation have been proposed and realized using, e.g., ultracold atoms in optical lattices, ultracold trapped ions, atoms in arrays of cavities, atoms/ions in arrays of traps, quantum dots or superconducting circuits. The progress in experimental implementations is more than spectacular. Particularly interesting are those systems that simulate quantum matter evolving in artificial, or synthetic, Abelian or even non-Abelian gauge fields. Abelian gauge fields are analogues to the standard magnetic field and lead to fascinating effects such as the integer or fractional quantum Hall effects (IQHE, FQHE) and vortex lattices. Non-Abelian gauge fields couple the motional states of the particles to their internal degrees of freedom (such as hyperfine states for atoms or ions, electronic spins for electrons, etc). In this sense, external non-Abelian fields extend the concept of spin–orbit coupling, which is familiar from AMO and condensed matter physics. They lead to yet another variety of fascinating novel phenomena such as the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE), 3D topological insulators, topological superconductors and superfluids of various kinds. Even more fascinating is the possibility of generating synthetic gauge fields that are dynamical, i.e., that evolve in time according to the corresponding lattice gauge theory (LGT). These dynamical gauge fields can also couple to matter fields, allowing the quantum simulation of such complex systems (notoriously hard to simulate using traditional computers), which are particularly relevant for modern high-energy physics. So far there are only theoretical proposals for simulating Abelian LGTs, but many groups are working on extensions to the non-Abelian scenarios. The scope of this special issue of Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics is on all of these developments, with particular emphasis on the non-Abelian case. We invite the leading theory and experimental groups to contribute to this very special issue of the journal in order to provide a reference collection for quantum simulations of gauge fields. To summarize the key features should be Synthetic spin–orbit coupling and the physics of topological insulating phases Strongly correlated phases in non-Abelian gauge potentials Dynamical non-Abelian gauge fields and the simulation of lattice gauge theories Spin–orbit coupled BEC and vortex physics Simulators of Abelian LGTs Simulators of non-Abelian LGTs You are invited to submit your article by 15 December 2012. Expected publication: Summer 2013. Corrections were made to this article on 7 November 2012. A change was made to the affiliations.