Fermi Gas Microscope

Site-resolved imaging and control of bosonic 87-Rb atoms in optical lattices have enabled ground-breaking quantum simulations of magnetic and relativistic Hamiltonians. However, many open questions in condensed matter physics arise in strongly correlated many-body systems of fermions. Ultracold Fermi gases of 6-Li are an ideal platform to study these problems because the light atomic mass leads to fast lattice dynamics. We have successfully loaded 6-Li atoms into an optical lattice in the image plane of a microscope with 0.85 numerical aperture. High-fidelity fluorescence imaging inside this trap requires continuous laser cooling. We report on our progress toward using Raman sideband cooling to perform site-resolved imaging in the Hubbard regime and report on the first demonstration of sideband transitions in deep optical lattices with trap frequencies up to 1 MHz.