DOI: 10.1126/science.1192368. Probing the Superfluid–to–Mott Insulator Transition at the Single-Atom Level

Probing the Superfluid–to–Mott Insulator Transition at the Single-Atom Level

10.1126/science.1192368

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

From Superfluid to Mott Insulator One of the most attractive characteristics of cold atomic gases in optical lattices is their ability to simulate condensed-matter systems. The results of these quantum simulations are usually averaged over the atomic ensemble, or course-grained over several lattice sites. Now, Bakr et al. (p. 547 , published online 17 June; see the Perspective by DeMarco ) provide a single lattice site view onto the transition of a Bose gas of Rb-87 from the superfluid to the Mott-insulating state. Characteristic concentric shells of uniform number density were observed deep in the Mott insulator regime, and probing the local quantum dynamics revealed unexpectedly short time scales. The low-defect Mott structures identified may provide a starting point for quantum magnetism experiments.

Bibliography

Bakr, W. S., Peng, A., Tai, M. E., Ma, R., Simon, J., Gillen, J. I., FÃ¶lling, S., Pollet, L., & Greiner, M. (2010). Probing the SuperfluidâtoâMott Insulator Transition at the Single-Atom Level. Science, 329(5991), 547â550.

Authors 9

W. S. Bakr (first)
A. Peng (additional)
M. E. Tai (additional)
R. Ma (additional)
J. Simon (additional)
J. I. Gillen (additional)
S. Fölling (additional)
L. Pollet (additional)
M. Greiner (additional)

References 32 Referenced 687

10.1038/415412a
T. Basché W. E. Moerner M. Orrit U. P. Wild Single-Molecule Optical Detection Imaging and Spectroscopy (Wiley-VCH Cambridge 1997). (10.1002/9783527614714)
10.1126/science.288.5473.2048
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S. Trotzky et al . http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4882 (2009).
10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.090402
10.1088/1367-2630/5/1/113
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10.1016/S0375-9601(97)00957-2
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Dates

Type	When
Created	15 years, 2 months ago (June 17, 2010, 10:25 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 10, 2024, 8:49 a.m.)
Indexed	45 minutes ago (Aug. 29, 2025, 3:11 p.m.)
Issued	15 years ago (July 30, 2010)
Published	15 years ago (July 30, 2010)
Published Print	15 years ago (July 30, 2010)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Bakr_2010, title={Probing the Superfluid–to–Mott Insulator Transition at the Single-Atom Level}, volume={329}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1192368}, DOI={10.1126/science.1192368}, number={5991}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Bakr, W. S. and Peng, A. and Tai, M. E. and Ma, R. and Simon, J. and Gillen, J. I. and Fölling, S. and Pollet, L. and Greiner, M.}, year={2010}, month=jul, pages={547–550} }

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