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Direct observation of effective ferromagnetic domains of cold atoms in a shaken optical lattice

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 769–774 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

One of the intriguing properties of quantum many-body systems is the emergence of long-range order from particles with short-range interactions. For example, magnetism involves the long-range ordering of electron spins. Systems of ultracold atoms are rapidly emerging as precise and controllable simulators of magnetism and other phenomena. Spinor condensates1,2 are a powerful tool in this regard; however, the spin interaction is typically weak and accessible only when multiple atomic internal states are collisionally stable. Here we demonstrate a lattice-shaking technique for hybridizing Bloch bands in optical lattices to introduce a strong effective spin interaction and the formation of large ferromagnetic domains. Our band hybridization method is independent of the atomic internal state, and can be widely applied to quantum simulators to explore new magnetic phases in optical lattices with tunable band structure.

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Figure 1: Ferromagnetic transition in a shaken optical lattice with double-well dispersion.
Figure 2: Sensitivity of the ferromagnetic transition to explicit energy imbalance.
Figure 3: Domain reconstruction.
Figure 4: Ferromagnetic domains and spin correlations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C-K. Lin for assistance in the early stages of the experiment. We acknowledge useful discussions with N. Gemelke, I. Spielman, A. Rançon, H. Zhai and G. Baym. This work was supported by NSF MRSEC (DMR-0820054), NSF Grant No. PHY-0747907 and ARO Grant No. W911NF0710576 with funds from the DARPA OLE Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

    Colin V. Parker, Li-Chung Ha & Cheng Chin

  2. Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

    Cheng Chin

Authors
  1. Colin V. Parker
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  2. Li-Chung Ha
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  3. Cheng Chin
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Contributions

L-C.H. performed the experiments. L-C.H. and C.V.P. analysed the data and C.V.P. wrote the manuscript. C.C. supervised.

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Correspondence to Cheng Chin.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Parker, C., Ha, LC. & Chin, C. Direct observation of effective ferromagnetic domains of cold atoms in a shaken optical lattice. Nature Phys 9, 769–774 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2789

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