Christof Weitenberg: A Phase Microscope for Quantum Gases

WSU Physics Colloquium: 23 January 2025
Christof Weitenberg: A Phase Microscope for Quantum Gases
Coherence properties are central to quantum systems and are at the heart of phenomena such as superconductivity. Here we study coherence properties of an ultracold Bose gas in a two-dimensional optical lattice across the thermal phase transition. To infer the phase coherence and phase fluctuation profile, we use direct matter-wave imaging [1] of higher Talbot revivals as well as a new phase microscope based on a site-resolved mapping of phase
fluctuations to density fluctuations during matter-wave imaging [2]. We observe the algebraic decay of the phase correlations in the superfluid phase and a linear temperature increase of the exponent. These techniques will also allow studying coherence properties in strongly-correlated quantum
systems with full spatial resolution.