Physics – Condensed Matter – Other Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
2005-03-23
Nature 434, 481-484 (2005)
Physics
Condensed Matter
Other Condensed Matter
Scientific paper
10.1038/nature03500
In a pioneering experiment, Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) demonstrated that noise correlations could be used to probe the properties of a (bosonic) particle source through quantum statistics; the effect relies on quantum interference between possible detection paths for two indistinguishable particles. HBT correlations -- together with their fermionic counterparts -- find numerous applications, ranging from quantum optics to nuclear and elementary particle physics. Spatial HBT interferometry has been suggested as a means to probe hidden order in strongly correlated phases of ultracold atoms. Here we report such a measurement on the Mott insulator phase of a rubidium Bose gas as it is released from an optical lattice trap. We show that strong periodic quantum correlations exist between density fluctuations in the expanding atom cloud. These spatial correlations reflect the underlying ordering in the lattice, and find a natural interpretation in terms of a multiple-wave HBT interference effect. The method should provide a useful tool for identifying complex quantum phases of ultracold bosonic and fermionic atoms.
Bloch Immanuel
Foelling Simon
Gerbier Fabrice
Gericke Tatjana
Mandel Olaf
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