Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds
Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/nature03500
复制
发表时间：
2005-03-24
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Bloch, I
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fölling, S;Gerbier, F;Bloch, I
在一个开创性的实验中，Hanbury Brown和Twiss（HBT）证明了噪声相关可以通过量子统计来探测（玻色子）粒子源的特性;这种效应依赖于两个不可区分的粒子的可能检测路径之间的量子干涉。HBT关联-与它们的费米子对应物（2-4）-发现了许多应用，从量子光学（5）到核物理和基本粒子物理（6）。空间HBT干涉术已经被建议（7）作为探测超冷原子强关联相位中隐藏有序的一种手段。在这里，我们报告这样的测量莫特绝缘体（8-10）相的铷玻色气体，因为它是从光学晶格陷阱释放。我们发现，在膨胀的原子云的密度起伏之间存在强的周期性量子关联。这些空间相关性反映了晶格中的潜在有序性，并在多波HBT干涉效应方面找到了自然的解释。该方法将为识别超冷玻色子和费米子原子的复杂量子相提供有用的工具（11-15）。
In a pioneering experiment(1), Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) demonstrated that noise correlations could be used to probe the properties of a (bosonic) particle source through quantum statistics; the effect relies on quantum interference between possible detection paths for two indistinguishable particles. HBT correlations - together with their fermionic counterparts(2-4) - find numerous applications, ranging from quantum optics(5) to nuclear and elementary particle physics(6). Spatial HBT interferometry has been suggested(7) as a means to probe hidden order in strongly correlated phases of ultracold atoms. Here we report such a measurement on the Mott insulator(8-10) phase of a rubidium Bose gas as it is released from an optical lattice trap. We show that strong periodic quantum correlations exist between density fluctuations in the expanding atom cloud. These spatial correlations reflect the underlying ordering in the lattice, and find a natural interpretation in terms of a multiplewave HBT interference effect. The method should provide a useful tool for identifying complex quantum phases of ultracold bosonic and fermionic atoms(11-15).