Site-resolved imaging of a bosonic Mott insulator of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>7</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:math> atoms
Kiryang Kwon, Kyungtae Kim, Junhyeok Hur, SeungJung Huh, Jae-yoon Choi
Abstract
We demonstrate single-site and single-atom-resolved fluorescence imaging of a bosonic Mott insulator of $^{7}\mathrm{Li}$ atoms in an optical lattice. The fluorescence images are obtained by implementing Raman sideband cooling on a deep two-dimensional square lattice, where we collect scattered photons with a high numerical aperture objective lens. The square lattice is created by a folded retroreflected beam configuration that can reach a 2.5 mK lattice depth from a single laser source. The lattice beam is elliptically focused to have a large area with deep potential. On average, 4000 photons are collected per atom during 1 s of Raman sideband cooling and the imaging fidelity is over $95%$ in the central $80\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}80$ lattice sites. As a first step to study correlated quantum phases, we present the site-resolved imaging of a Mott insulator. By tuning the magnetic field near the Feshbach resonance, the scattering length can be increased to $680{a}_{B}$ and we are able to produce a large-sized unity filling Mott insulator with 2000 atoms at low temperature. Our work provides a stepping stone to further in-depth investigations of intriguing quantum many-body phases in optical lattices.