Quantum gas microscopy of triangular lattice Mott insulators*

Frustrated quantum systems can host quasi-particles with fractional statistics and pose significant challenges to condensed matter theory due to their extensive ground state degeneracy. Here, we aim at quantum simulation of electronic systems on triangular lattice geometries using ultracold atoms in a quantum gas microscope.

In this talk, I present the site-resolved imaging of fermionic lithium atoms in our novel triangular optical lattice geometry and the realization of Mott insulators in the triangular lattice. Our experiment allows for the preparation of triangular Hubbard systems of several hundred atoms and we image these systems with 98% detection fidelity. I will report on our progress in characterizing the triangular Hubbard systems using site-resolved density and correlation observables in the experiment and discuss comparisons of experimental data to Numerical Linked Cluster Expansion calculations as well as Quantum Monte Carlo simulations.

Our new experimental platform opens the path for studies of kinetic frustration, searches for spin-liquids and investigations of transport properties in frustrated lattices.