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An SU(6) Mott insulator of an atomic Fermi gas realized by large-spin Pomeranchuk cooling

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 825–830 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Hubbard model accounts for many of the diverse phenomena observed in solid-state materials, despite incorporating only nearest-neighbour hopping and on-site interactions for correlated electrons. One interesting extension to the model involves enlarging its spin symmetry to , which describes systems with orbital degeneracy. Here we report a successful formation of the SU(6) symmetric Mott-insulator state with an atomic Fermi gas of ytterbium (173Yb) atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. In addition to the suppression of compressibility and the charge-excitation gap characteristic of a Mott-insulating phase, we reveal that the SU(6) system can achieve lower temperatures than the SU(2) state, owing to differences in the entropy carried by an isolated spin. The mechanism is analogous to Pomeranchuk cooling in solid 3He and will be helpful for investigating exotic quantum phases of the SU() Hubbard system at extremely low temperatures.

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Figure 1: Lattice modulation spectroscopy.
Figure 2: The DPR for Mott insulators.
Figure 3: Schematic of enhanced Pomeranchuk cooling in an Fermi gas.
Figure 4: Double occupancy and compressibility.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge M. A. Cazalilla, T. Giamarchi, V. Gurarie, K. R. A. Hazzard, M. Hermele, K. Inaba, A. M. Rey, A. Tokuno and M. Yamashita for helpful discussions. This work is supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research of JSPS (No. 18204035, 21102005C01 (Quantum Cybernetics)), GCOE Program ‘The Next Generation of Physics, Spun from Universality and Emergence’ from MEXT of Japan, and World- Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST). S.T. acknowledge support from the JSPS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 606-8502, Japan

    Shintaro Taie, Rekishu Yamazaki, Seiji Sugawa & Yoshiro Takahashi

  2. CREST, JST, 4-1-8 Honcho Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan

    Rekishu Yamazaki & Yoshiro Takahashi

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  1. Shintaro Taie
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S.T., R.Y. and S.S. carried out experiments. S.T. analysed the data and performed numerical calculations. Y.T. conducted the whole experiment. All the authors contributed to preparing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shintaro Taie.

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Taie, S., Yamazaki, R., Sugawa, S. et al. An SU(6) Mott insulator of an atomic Fermi gas realized by large-spin Pomeranchuk cooling. Nature Phys 8, 825–830 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2430

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