Experimental Realization of Plaquette Resonating Valence-Bond States with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Superlattices

S. Nascimbène, Y.-A. Chen, M. Atala, M. Aidelsburger, S. Trotzky, B. Paredes, and I. Bloch
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 205301 – Published 14 May 2012
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Abstract

The concept of valence-bond resonance plays a fundamental role in the theory of the chemical bond and is believed to lie at the heart of many-body quantum physical phenomena. Here we show direct experimental evidence of a time-resolved valence-bond quantum resonance with ultracold bosonic atoms in an optical lattice. By means of a superlattice structure we create a three-dimensional array of independent four-site plaquettes, which we can fully control and manipulate in parallel. Moreover, we show how small-scale plaquette resonating valence-bond (RVB) states with s- and d-wave symmetry can be created and characterized. We anticipate our findings to open the path towards the creation and analysis of many-body RVB states in ultracold atomic gases.

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  • Received 4 January 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.205301

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

S. Nascimbène1,2,3, Y.-A. Chen1,2,4, M. Atala1,2, M. Aidelsburger1,2, S. Trotzky1,2, B. Paredes5, and I. Bloch1,2

  • 1Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Schellingstrasse 4, 80799 München, Germany
  • 2Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 3Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, UPMC, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France
  • 4National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai 201315, China
  • 5Department für Physik, Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, 80333 München, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 20 — 18 May 2012

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