Probing the extended Fermi-Hubbard Model with ultracold ytterbium

The Fermi-Hubbard Model (FHM) in condensed-matter physics describes the interplay between the kinetic energy and the on-site interaction of electrons in a lattice. Ultracold atoms in optical lattices have allowed to investigate this model with an unprecedented level of control and tunability. While the original focus has been on the FHM of spin 1/2 particles and SU(2) symmetry, extended Hubbard models, such as multi-band and SU(N>2)-symmetric models, can now increasingly be addressed both in experiment and theory. In our experiment, we implement Hamiltonians such as the SU(N)-FHM with tunable N≤6 with ultracold ytterbium. We prepare ¹⁷³Yb atoms in a two-dimensional square optical lattice, and locally probe the FHM for variable symmetry and interactions, allowing for direct comparisons of different systems and benchmarking of theoretical models.