Measurement of interacting quantum phases: A band mapping scheme

Abstract

Band mapping is widely used in various scenarios of cold atom physics to measure the quasi-momentum distribution and band population. However, conventional methods fail in strongly interacting systems. Here we propose and experimentally realize a novel scheme of band mapping that can accurately measure the quasi-momentum of interacting many-body systems. Through an anisotropic control in turning down the three-dimensional optical lattice, we can eliminate the effect of interactions on the band mapping process. Then, based on a precise measurement of the quasi-momentum distribution, we introduce the incoherent fraction as a physical quantity that can quantify the degree of incoherence of quantum many-body states. This method enables precise measurement of processes such as the superfluid to Mott insulator phase transition. Additionally, by analyzing the spatial correlation derived from the quasi-momentum of superfluid-Mott insulator phase transitions, we obtain results consistent with the incoherent fraction. Our scheme broadens the scope of band mapping and provides a method for studying quantum many-body problems.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

ultracold physics / Mott insulator / superfluid / band mapping

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Declarations

The authors declare that they have no competing interests and there are no conflicts.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Xiong-Jun Liu for his valuable discussions and constructive comments, as well as his critical reading of our manuscript. We also thank Xinchi Zhou for helpful comments. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFA1400900).

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