Measuring Talbot revivals with a matter-wave microscope

Imaging is crucial for gaining insight into physical systems. In the case of ultracold atoms in optical lattices, quantum gas microscopes have revolutionized the access to quantum many-body systems by resolving single lattice sites. However they are limited to investigating 2D systems and are technically demanding.

We have implemented the novel technique of matter-wave magnification [1] in our lithium quantum gas machine in an all optical way. This allows us to image 3D atomic samples with standard absorption imaging techniques with lattice-site resolution. The ability to control the interaction strength of the many-body system enables us to probe the coherence of the system. We present a measurement of coherence by exploiting real space images of the Talbot revivals resulting from a 2D optical lattice. In the future we plan to implement single atom sensitivity.

[1] Asteria, L. et al. Nature 599, 571–575 (2021).