Two electrons are better than one... In the Yb lab we produce Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of ytterbium atoms. These atoms offer metastable electronic states, ultranarrow clock transitions, multicomponent fermions with SU(N) interactions: a whole range of experimental tools that allow new possibilities for quantum simulation and quantum information processing.

Flavour-selective localization in interacting lattice fermions via SU(N) symmetry breaking

A large repulsion between particles in a quantum system can lead to their localization, an effect responsible for the Mott insulator phases in strongly correlated materials. In a system with multiple orbitals, an orbital-selective Mott insulator can form, where electrons in some orbitals are predicted to localize while others remain itinerant. Here we demonstrate a more general version of this phenomenon by observing flavour-selective localization in an atom-based quantum simulator. Our experiment realizes Fermi–Hubbard models with an SU(3) symmetry that can be broken using a tunable coupling between flavours. We observe an enhancement of the localization associated with a selective Mott transition and the emergence of flavour-dependent correlations. Our realization of flavour-selective Mott physics demonstrates the potential of cold atoms to simulate interacting multicomponent materials such as superconductors and topological insulators.

D. Tusi, et al.
Flavour-selective localization in interacting lattice fermions
Nat. Phys. 18, 1201 (2022)

Yb people

Giammarco Masini
Master student
Tianwei Zhou
Postdoctoral fellow
Jacopo Parravicini
Scientific staff
Giacomo Cappellini
Scientific staff
Jacopo Catani
Scientific staff
Massimo Inguscio
Scientific staff
Leonardo Fallani
Scientific staff
Former members:
Rafael Emilio Barfknecht
Daniel Benedicto Orenes
Lorenzo Franchi
Giovanni Giusfredi
Jonathan T. Green
Lorenzo Livi
Pietro Lombardi
Marco Mancini
Pablo Cancio Pastor
Guido Pagano
Florian Schäfer
Carlo Sias
Daniele Tusi

Yb contacts

For further information, request of material, job opportunities, please contact:

Leonardo Fallani
(fallani@lens.unifi.it)

Yb funding

ERC CoG TOPSIM
QUANTERA QTFLAG
INFN FISh