Work

A phase microscope for quantum gases

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Coherence properties are central to quantum systems and are at the heart of phenomena such as superconductivity. In this work, we studied 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 profiles, we used direct matter-wave imaging of higher Talbot revivals and introduced a phase microscope based on a site-resolved mapping of phase fluctuations to density fluctuations during matter-wave imaging. We observed the algebraic decay of the phase correlations in the superfluid phase and a linear temperature increase of the exponent. These techniques may enable studying coherence properties in strongly correlated quantum systems with full spatial resolution.

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.adt1712

Authors: J. C. Brüggenjürgen, M. S. Fischer, C. Weitenberg

Institutions: Universität Hamburg, TU Dortmund University

Language: English

Topic: Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, H2020 European Research Council

Awards: G1230266125, Engineering and exploring anyonic quantum gases, EXC 2056: CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter, G434337789, G4675369358