Quantitative Determination of Temperature in the Approach to Magnetic Order of Ultracold Fermions in an Optical Lattice

R. Jördens, L. Tarruell, D. Greif, T. Uehlinger, N. Strohmaier, H. Moritz, T. Esslinger, L. De Leo, C. Kollath, A. Georges, V. Scarola, L. Pollet, E. Burovski, E. Kozik, and M. Troyer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 180401 – Published 6 May 2010

Abstract

We perform a quantitative simulation of the repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model using an ultracold gas trapped in an optical lattice. The entropy of the system is determined by comparing accurate measurements of the equilibrium double occupancy with theoretical calculations over a wide range of parameters. We demonstrate the applicability of both high-temperature series and dynamical mean-field theory to obtain quantitative agreement with the experimental data. The reliability of the entropy determination is confirmed by a comprehensive analysis of all systematic errors. In the center of the Mott insulating cloud we obtain an entropy per atom as low as 0.77kB which is about twice as large as the entropy at the Néel transition. The corresponding temperature depends on the atom number and for small fillings reaches values on the order of the tunneling energy.

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  • Received 18 December 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.180401

©2010 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

R. Jördens1, L. Tarruell1, D. Greif1, T. Uehlinger1, N. Strohmaier1, H. Moritz1, T. Esslinger1,*, L. De Leo2, C. Kollath2, A. Georges2,3, V. Scarola4, L. Pollet5, E. Burovski6, E. Kozik1, and M. Troyer1

  • 1Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 2Centre de Physique Théorique, CNRS, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France
  • 3Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75231 Paris Cedex, France
  • 4Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • 5Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
  • 6LPTMS, CNRS and Université Paris-Sud, UMR8626, Bâtiment 100, 91405 Orsay, France

  • *esslinger@phys.ethz.ch

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Vol. 104, Iss. 18 — 7 May 2010

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