ALP Seminar: Microscopic Control and Disorder in Quantum-Gas Microscopes

Quantum-gas microscopes enable single-atom–resolved studies of many-body quantum systems in optical lattices. Using dynamically engineered microscopic light potentials created by a digital micromirror device (DMD), we investigate commensurate and incommensurate one-dimensional systems of interacting bosonic Rb atoms. By dynamically tuning confinement while conserving atom number, we realize analogues of doped insulating states and probe their transport and compressibility. In a complementary line of work, we study disordered systems in a two-dimensional lattice. We directly observe signatures of the Bose-glass phase, an insulating yet compressible state, through density fluctuations and reduced coherence length. We further employ phase-modulating spatial light modulators (SLMs) to generate arbitrary holographic potentials with high accuracy, enhancing control over large-scale optical landscapes.