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Probing an ultracold-atom crystal with matter waves

Nature Physics volume 8, pages 544–549 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Atomic quantum gases in optical lattices serve as a versatile testbed for important concepts of modern condensed-matter physics. The availability of methods to characterize strongly correlated phases is crucial for the study of these systems. Diffraction techniques to reveal long-range spatial structure, which may complement in situ detection methods, have been largely unexplored. Here we experimentally demonstrate that Bragg diffraction of neutral atoms can be used for this purpose. Using a one-dimensional Bose gas as a source of matter waves, we are able to infer the spatial ordering and on-site localization of atoms confined to an optical lattice. We also study the suppression of inelastic scattering between incident matter waves and the lattice-trapped atoms, occurring for increased lattice depth. Furthermore, we use atomic de Broglie waves to detect forced antiferromagnetic ordering in an atomic spin mixture, demonstrating the suitability of our method for the non-destructive detection of spin-ordered phases in strongly correlated atomic gases.

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Figure 1: Interspecies collisions of one-dimensional bosons.
Figure 2: Probe scattering from a crystalline target.
Figure 3: Detecting forced antiferromagnetic order by means of matter-wave scattering.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Pupillo and K. Le Hur for discussions, and M. G. Cohen and T. Bergeman for valuable comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (PHY-0855643), and the Research Foundation of The State University of New York (SUNY). B.G. and J.R. acknowledge support from the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program of the US Department of Education.

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Author notes

  1. Daniel Pertot

    Present address: Present address: AMOP Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800, USA

    Bryce Gadway, Daniel Pertot, Jeremy Reeves & Dominik Schneble

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  1. Bryce Gadway
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  2. Daniel Pertot
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Contributions

D.S., B.G. and D.P. conceived the experiment. B.G. and D.P. carried out the measurements, with assistance from J.R. B.G. performed the data analysis, with contributions by D.P. D.S. supervised the project. All authors discussed the results and implications. B.G. and D.S. wrote the manuscript with contributions from D.P.

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Correspondence to Dominik Schneble.

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Gadway, B., Pertot, D., Reeves, J. et al. Probing an ultracold-atom crystal with matter waves. Nature Phys 8, 544–549 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2320

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