Inducing spin-dependent tunneling to probe magnetic correlations in optical lattices

Abstract

We suggest a simple experimental method for probing antiferromagnetic spin correlations of twocomponent Fermi gases in optical lattices. The method relies on a spin selective Raman transition to excite atoms of one spin species to their first excited vibrational mode where the tunneling is large. The resulting difference in the tunneling dynamics of the two spin species can then be exploited, to reveal the spin correlations by measuring the number of doubly occupied lattice sites at a later time. We perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the spin system and solve the optical lattice dynamics numerically to show how the timed probe can be used to identify antiferromagnetic spin correlations in optical lattices.

Using superlattice potentials to probe long-range magnetic correlations in optical lattices

“…1. This delocalization is most significant for the first excited vibrational mode, and can be used to construct a simpler but also less controlled probe of ordering in optical lattices [31]. For the SCB probe, on the other hand, the delocalization is a source of error and in this section, we shall investigate the effect of it.…”