Dipolar quantum solids emerging in a Hubbard quantum simulator

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 622; no. 7984; pp. 724 - 729
• Main Authors: Su, Lin, Douglas, Alexander, Szurek, Michal, Groth, Robin, Ozturk, S. Furkan, Krahn, Aaron, Hébert, Anne H., Phelps, Gregory A., Ebadi, Sepehr, Dickerson, Susannah, Ferlaino, Francesca, Marković, Ognjen, Greiner, Markus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 26.10.2023; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 140/125; 639/766/119/999; 639/766/36/1125; 639/766/483/3926; Anisotropy; Atoms & subatomic particles; Correlation; Dipoles; Energy; Erbium; Fluids; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microscopy; multidisciplinary; Onsite; Optical lattices; Phase transitions; Quantum mechanics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Simulation; Superfluidity
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06614-3

In quantum mechanical many-body systems, long-range and anisotropic interactions promote rich spatial structure and can lead to quantum frustration, giving rise to a wealth of complex, strongly correlated quantum phases 1 . Long-range interactions play an important role in nature; however, quantum simulations of lattice systems have largely not been able to realize such interactions. A wide range of efforts are underway to explore long-range interacting lattice systems using polar molecules 2 – 5 , Rydberg atoms 2 , 6 – 8 , optical cavities 9 – 11 or magnetic atoms 12 – 15 . Here we realize novel quantum phases in a strongly correlated lattice system with long-range dipolar interactions using ultracold magnetic erbium atoms. As we tune the dipolar interaction to be the dominant energy scale in our system, we observe quantum phase transitions from a superfluid into dipolar quantum solids, which we directly detect using quantum gas microscopy with accordion lattices. Controlling the interaction anisotropy by orienting the dipoles enables us to realize a variety of stripe-ordered states. Furthermore, by transitioning non-adiabatically through the strongly correlated regime, we observe the emergence of a range of metastable stripe-ordered states. This work demonstrates that novel strongly correlated quantum phases can be realized using long-range dipolar interactions in optical lattices, opening the door to quantum simulations of a wide range of lattice models with long-range and anisotropic interactions. The realization of dipolar quantum solids with an ultracold gas of magnetic atoms in an optical lattice ushers in quantum simulation of many-body systems with long-range anisotropic interactions.