Novel platforms for quantum simulation using a lithium-6 quantum gas microscope: tweezer arrays and Rydberg-dressed fermions

Over the past few years, fermionic quantum gas microscopes have been used to explore equilibrium and dynamical properties of the Fermi-Hubbard model. We describe two methods by which we are expanding the simulation capabilities of this platform to study the effects of non-local interactions and to create low-entropy many-body states. First, we achieve strong non-local interactions by off-resonantly coupling our neutral atoms to a highly excited Rydberg state via a single-photon transition, a technique known as Rydberg dressing. Our system realizes a spinless fermion t-V model. We find that strong nearest-neighbor interactions in this system slow down the relaxation dynamics of imprinted charge density waves. Second, we reach record low entropies with a one-dimensional lattice system formed by optical tweezers. We adiabatically prepare a low entropy correlated state at half filling in an 8 site lattice. By generating tweezers with multiple acousto-optical modulators or a spatial light modulator, we can expand this system to a two-dimensional array with hundreds of atoms in the future. In addition to studying lower temperature Fermi-Hubbard physics, with this platform we will be able to study Hamiltonians with flexible geometries and single site control while being compatible with our already demonstrated Rydberg dressing capabilities.