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.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Binnig, G. & Rohrer, H. Scanning tunneling microscopy — from birth to adolescence. Rev. Mod. Phys. 59, 615–625 (1987)
Giessibl, F. J. Advances in atomic force microscopy. Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 949–983 (2003)
Blatt, R. & Wineland, D. Entangled states of trapped atomic ions. Nature 453, 1008–1015 (2008)
Zvonarev, M. B., Cheianov, V. V. & Giamarchi, T. Spin dynamics in a one-dimensional ferromagnetic Bose gas. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 240404 (2007)
Recati, A., Fedichev, P. O., Zwerger, W. & Zoller, P. Spin-charge separation in ultracold quantum gases. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 020401 (2003)
Kleine, A., Kollath, C., McCulloch, I. P., Giamarchi, T. & Schollwöck, U. Spin-charge separation in two-component Bose gases. Phys. Rev. A 77, 013607 (2008)
Weiss, D. et al. Another way to approach zero entropy for a finite system of atoms. Phys. Rev. A 70, 040302 (2004)
Bernier, J.-S. et al. Cooling fermionic atoms in optical lattices by shaping the confinement. Phys. Rev. A 79, 061601(R) (2009)
Weimer, H., Müller, M., Lesanovsky, I., Zoller, P. & Büchler, H. P. A Rydberg quantum simulator. Nature Phys. 6, 382–388 (2010)
Nielsen, M. A. & Chuang, I. L. Quantum Computation and Quantum Information (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000)
Raussendorf, R. & Briegel, H. J. A one-way quantum computer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5188–5191 (2001)
Briegel, H. J., Browne, D. E., Dür, W., Raussendorf, R. & Van Den Nest, M. Measurement-based quantum computation. Nature Phys. 5, 19–26 (2009)
Dumke, R. et al. Micro-optical realization of arrays of selectively addressable dipole traps: a scalable configuration for quantum computation with atomic qubits. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 097903 (2002)
Bergamini, S. et al. Holographic generation of microtrap arrays for single atoms by use of a programmable phase modulator. J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 21, 1889–1894 (2004)
Saffman, M. Addressing atoms in optical lattices with Bessel beams. Opt. Lett. 29, 1016–1018 (2004)
Calarco, T., Dorner, U., Julienne, P. S., Williams, C. J. & Zoller, P. Quantum computations with atoms in optical lattices: marker qubits and molecular interactions. Phys. Rev. A 70, 012306 (2004)
Zhang, C., Rolston, S. L. & Das Sarma, S. Manipulation of single neutral atoms in optical lattices. Phys. Rev. A 74, 042316 (2006)
Joo, J., Lim, Y. L., Beige, A. & Knight, P. L. Single-qubit rotations in two-dimensional optical lattices with multiqubit addressing. Phys. Rev. A 74, 042344 (2006)
Cho, J. Addressing individual atoms in optical lattices with standing-wave driving fields. Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 020502 (2007)
Gorshkov, A. V., Jiang, L., Greiner, M., Zoller, P. & Lukin, M. D. Coherent quantum optical control with subwavelength resolution. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 093005 (2008)
Lundblad, N., Obrecht, J. M., Spielman, I. B. & Porto, J. V. Field-sensitive addressing and control of field-insensitive neutral-atom qubits. Nature Phys. 5, 575–580 (2009)
Shibata, K., Kato, S., Yamaguchi, A., Uetake, S. & Takahashi, Y. A scalable quantum computer with ultranarrow optical transition of ultracold neutral atoms in an optical lattice. Appl. Phys. B 97, 753–758 (2009)
Scheunemann, R., Cataliotti, F. S., Hänsch, T. W. & Weitz, M. Resolving and addressing atoms in individual sites of a CO2-laser optical lattice. Phys. Rev. A 62, 051801(R) (2000)
Schrader, D. et al. Neutral atom quantum register. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 150501 (2004)
Karski, M. et al. Imprinting patterns of neutral atoms in an optical lattice using magnetic resonance techniques. N. J. Phys. 12, 065027 (2010)
Würtz, P., Langen, T., Gericke, T., Koglbauer, A. & Ott, H. Experimental demonstration of single-site addressability in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 080404 (2009)
Bakr, W. S. et al. Probing the superfluid-to-Mott insulator transition at the single-atom level. Science 329, 547–550 (2010)
Sherson, J. F. et al. Single-atom-resolved fluorescence imaging of an atomic Mott insulator. Nature 467, 68–72 (2010)
Schlosser, N., Reymond, G., Protsenko, I. & Grangier, P. Sub-poissonian loading of single atoms in a microscopic dipole trap. Nature 411, 1024–1027 (2001)
Kuhr, S. et al. Deterministic delivery of a single atom. Science 293, 278–280 (2001)
Grünzweig, T., Hilliard, A., McGovern, M. & Andersen, M. F. Near-deterministic preparation of a single atom in an optical microtrap. Nature Phys. 6, 951–954 (2010)
Fisher, M. P. A., Weichman, P. B., Grinstein, G. & Fisher, D. S. Boson localization and the superfluid-insulator transition. Phys. Rev. B 40, 546–570 (1989)
Jaksch, D., Bruder, C., Cirac, J. I., Gardiner, C. & Zoller, P. Cold bosonic atoms in optical lattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3108–3111 (1998)
Greiner, M., Mandel, O., Esslinger, T., Hänsch, T. W. & Bloch, I. Quantum phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator in a gas of ultracold atoms. Nature 415, 39–44 (2002)
Fölling, S., Widera, A., Müller, T., Gerbier, F. & Bloch, I. Formation of spatial shell structure in the superfluid to Mott insulator transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 060403 (2006)
Campbell, G. K. et al. Imaging the Mott insulator shells by using atomic clock shifts. Science 313, 649–652 (2006)
Perets, H. B. et al. Realization of quantum walks with negligible decoherence in waveguide lattices. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 170506 (2008)
Karski, M. et al. Quantum walk in position space with single optically trapped atoms. Science 325, 174–177 (2009)
Zähringer, F. et al. Realization of a quantum walk with one and two trapped ions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 100503 (2010)
Schneider, U. et al. Breakdown of diffusion: from collisional hydrodynamics to a continuous quantum walk in a homogeneous Hubbard model. Preprint at 〈http://arXiv.org/abs/1005.3545v1〉 (2010)
Winkler, K. et al. Repulsively bound atom pairs in an optical lattice. Nature 441, 853–856 (2006)
Fölling, S. et al. Direct observation of second-order atom tunnelling. Nature 448, 1029–1032 (2007)
Peruzzo, A. et al. Quantum walks of correlated photons. Science 329, 1500–1503 (2010)
Micheli, A., Daley, A. J., Jaksch, D. & Zoller, P. Single atom transistor in a 1D optical lattice. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 140408 (2004)
Sherson, J. F. & Mølmer, K. Shaking the entropy out of a lattice: atomic filtering by vibrational excitations. Preprint at 〈http://arXiv.org/abs/1012.1457v1〉 (2010)
Jaksch, D., Briegel, H.-J., Cirac, J. I., Gardiner, C. W. & Zoller, P. Entanglement of atoms via cold controlled collisions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1975–1978 (1999)
Mandel, O. et al. Controlled collisions for multiparticle entanglement of optically trapped atoms. Nature 425, 937–940 (2003)
Wilk, T. et al. Entanglement of two individual neutral atoms using Rydberg blockade. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010502 (2010)
Isenhower, L. et al. Demonstration of a neutral atom controlled-NOT quantum gate. Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 010503 (2010)
Garwood, M. & DelaBarre, L. The return of the frequency sweep: designing adiabatic pulses for contemporary NMR. J. Magn. Reson. 153, 155–177 (2001)
Acknowledgements
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, Marie Curie Fellowships to J.F.S. and M.C.), and JSPS (Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad to T.F.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
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.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weitenberg, C., Endres, M., Sherson, J. et al. Single-spin addressing in an atomic Mott insulator. Nature 471, 319–324 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09827
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09827
This article is cited by
-
Commensurate and incommensurate 1D interacting quantum systems
Nature Communications (2024)
-
Multi-ensemble metrology by programming local rotations with atom movements
Nature Physics (2024)
-
A switchable atomic mirror
Nature Physics (2023)
-
Scalable quantum processors empowered by the Fermi scattering of Rydberg electrons
Communications Physics (2023)
-
A subwavelength atomic array switched by a single Rydberg atom
Nature Physics (2023)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.