2D Cold Atom Quantum Simulator

This project aims at the realization of Feynman's vision of simulation of one quantum system using a well controlled and model quantum system evolving according to a tailored Hamiltonian. Using cold atom systems in optical lattices this stepwise approach is likely to quite naturally deliver one of the main currently foreseen applications of a quantum computer: a general quantum simulator. The key new feature of this project is the attempt to achieve full control over a many-body quantum system by implementing single site resolution for quantum state manipulation as well as quantum state analysis: The vacuum chamber will be sandwiched between two long-range microscope objectives, one for high resolution imaging and the other for potential manipulation by laser imaging of a mega-pixel spatial light modulator.

Figure: CAD design of the experimental setup. Left: 2D - 3D MOT setups for different species. Right: 2D quantum gas chamber with lattice beams and microscope objectives.

Disorder Physics with Cold Atoms

Establishing a test case for the quantum simulator setup, we intend to map out the phase diagrams of 2D systems in the vicinity of localization phenomena from Anderson localization to glass phases. We plan to characterize the interplay of interactions and disorder using Feshbach tuning as well as site-resolved potential definition. Complementary to studies on fixed disorder we plan to explore the phase diagram for mobile impurities in a quantum gas mixture of 40K and 87Rb, using the potassium atoms as "impurities". One focus of the investigations will lie on "polaron-like" self trapping phenomena.