Microscopy of cavity-induced density-wave ordering in ultracold gases

2025/11/11 by Bühler, Tabea, Fabre, Aurélien, Bolognini, Gaia +4 · 1 citation
#FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.08510

Abstract

We demonstrate high-resolution in-situ imaging of density-wave ordering induced by cavity-mediated interactions in a unitary Fermi gas. We observe long-range spatial correlations throughout the formation of density waves, both for adiabatic preparation and following a quench, with a pattern controlled by the cavity mode structure. Our single-shot microscopic images together with the real-time readout of the cavity photons provide access to atom-photon correlations. We use this capability to investigate order fluctuations as a function of time following a quench and to directly confirm the correspondence between optical and atomic observables. Our system opens rich perspectives, from local patterning to correlation measurements in long-range interacting quantum gases.

Citations

• Cavity-mediated charge and pair-density waves in a unitary Fermi gas
• Quantum simulation of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model using time-dependent disorder in optical cavities
• Optomechanical self-organization in a mesoscopic atom array
• Site-selective cavity readout and classical error correction of a 5-bit atomic register
• Dynamical Instabilities of Strongly Interacting Ultracold Fermions in an Optical Cavity
• Cavity QED with quantum gases: new paradigms in many-body physics

Cited by

• Paramagnetic Phases of Strongly Correlated Ultracold Fermions Coupled to an Optical Cavity

Related

• Cavity-mediated charge and pair-density waves in a unitary Fermi gas
• In situ imaging of the thermal de Broglie wavelength in an ultracold Bose gas
• Structural Dynamics and Strong Correlations in Dynamical Quantum Optical Lattices
• In-situ Imaging of a Single-Atom Wave Packet in Continuous Space
• Spatial quantum noise interferometry in expanding ultracold atom clouds