Quantum gas microscopy of ytterbium: Cool me twice

Abstract

The site-resolved detection of ultracold atoms in optical lattice potentials is a powerful technique to study lattice models of correlated quantum matter. In their recent paper, Yamamoto et al (2016 New J. Phys. 18 023016) demonstrate a quantum gas microscope for ultracold ytterbium atoms. By simultaneously cooling these atoms on two optical transitions, they show that fluorescent images of the lattice gas can be obtained while keeping the atoms pinned to their lattice sites even for a lattice spacing as small as 266 nm. This promises to be a powerful enabling tool for studies of metrology and quantum magnetism with quantum degenerate gases of ytterbium.