This paper, a collaboration between researchers at the University of Bonn and the University of Bristol, outlines a method for getting three-dimensional information about an atom’s position from a 2D image.
Using a so-called quantum gas microscope, where the light emitted from atoms is collected by a microscope objective and sent to a camera, one can distinguish single atoms trapped like eggs in an egg carton. Normal images of these atoms show up as individual specks on a camera, and, while it is easy to determine where the atoms are in the plane of the image (the x- and y-coordinates of the atom position), it is difficult to determine the position of the atoms out of the image plane (the z-coordinate).
By modifying the light field emitted by the atom before it goes into the camera, researchers were able to make the atom image rotate as a function of its z-position. This enables three-dimensional information about the atom’s position to be recorded. The work opens up a new paradigm for quantum simulation, where quantum particles are precisely controlled and used to mimic real physical systems that are difficult to study directly, which has utility in materials science and the study of magnetism, among other things.