We realize a quantum-gas microscope for fermionic 40 K atoms trapped in an optical lattice, which allows one to probe strongly correlated fermions at the single-atom level. We combine 3D Raman sideband cooling with high-resolution optics to simultaneously cool and image individual atoms with single-latticesite resolution at a detection fidelity above 95%. The imaging process leaves the atoms predominantly in the 3D motional ground state of their respective lattice sites, inviting the implementation of a Maxwell's demon to assemble low-entropy many-body states. Single-site-resolved imaging of fermions enables the direct observation of magnetic order, time-resolved measurements of the spread of particle correlations, and the detection of many-fermion entanglement. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.193001 PACS numbers: 37.10.De, 03.75.Ss, 37.10.Jk, 67.85.Lm The collective behavior of fermionic particles governs the structure of the elements, the workings of hightemperature superconductors and colossal magnetoresistance materials, and the properties of nuclear matter. Yet our understanding of strongly interacting Fermi systems is limited, due in part to the antisymmetry requirement on the many-fermion wave function and the resulting "fermion sign problem" [1]. In recent years, ultracold atomic quantum gases have enabled quantitative experimental tests of theories of strongly interacting fermions [2][3][4][5]. In particular, fermions trapped in optical lattices can directly simulate the physics of electrons in a crystalline solid, shedding light on novel physical phenomena in materials with strong electron correlations. A major effort is devoted to the realization of the Fermi-Hubbard model at low entropies, believed to capture the essential aspects of high-T c superconductivity [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. For bosonic atoms, a new set of experimental probes ideally suited for the observation of magnetic order and correlations has become available with the advent of quantum-gas microscopes [13][14][15], enabling high-resolution imaging of Hubbardtype lattice systems at the single-atom level. They allowed the direct observation of spatial structures and ordering in the Bose-Hubbard model [14,16] and of the intricate correlations and dynamics in these systems [17,18]. A longstanding goal has been to realize such a quantum-gas microscope for fermionic atoms. This would enable the direct probing and control at the single-lattice-site level of strongly correlated fermion systems, in particular the Fermi-Hubbard model, in regimes that cannot be described by current theories. These prospects have sparked significant experimental efforts to realize site-resolved, highfidelity imaging of ultracold fermions, but this goal has so far remained elusive.In the present work, we realize a quantum-gas microscope for fermionic 40 K atoms by combining 3D Raman sideband cooling with a high-resolution imaging system. The imaging setup incorporates a hemispherical solid immersion lens optically contacted to the vacuum window [ Fig. 1(a)]. In ...
Strong electron correlations lie at the origin of high-temperature superconductivity. Its essence is believed to be captured by the Fermi-Hubbard model of repulsively interacting fermions on a lattice. Here we report on the site-resolved observation of charge and spin correlations in the two-dimensional (2D) Fermi-Hubbard model realized with ultracold atoms. Antiferromagnetic spin correlations are maximal at half-filling and weaken monotonically upon doping. At large doping, nearest-neighbor correlations between singly charged sites are negative, revealing the formation of a correlation hole, the suppressed probability of finding two fermions near each other. As the doping is reduced, the correlations become positive, signaling strong bunching of doublons and holes, in agreement with numerical calculations. The dynamics of the doublon-hole correlations should play an important role for transport in the Fermi-Hubbard model.
Strongly correlated materials are expected to feature unconventional transport properties, such that charge, spin, and heat conduction are potentially independent probes of the dynamics. In contrast to charge transport, the measurement of spin transport in such materials is highly challenging. We observed spin conduction and diffusion in a system of ultracold fermionic atoms that realizes the half-filled Fermi-Hubbard model. For strong interactions, spin diffusion is driven by super-exchange and doublon-hole-assisted tunneling, and strongly violates the quantum limit of charge diffusion. The technique developed in this work can be extended to finite doping, which can shed light on the complex interplay between spin and charge in the Hubbard model.
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