Minimal motor for powering particle motion from spin imbalance.

We introduce a minimalistic quantum motor for coupled energy and particle transport. The system is composed of two spins, each coupled to a different bath and to a particle which can move on a ring consisting of three sites. We show that the energy flowing from the baths to the system can be partially converted to perform work against an external driving, even in the presence of moderate dissipation.

Converting heat into directed transport on a tilted lattice.

We present a self-contained engine, which is made of one or more two-level systems, each of which is coupled to a single bath, as well as to a common load composed of a particle on a tilted lattice. We show that an increase in time of energy and entropy in the system composed of the spins and the particle, due to the interaction with the bath, can set the particle into upward motion at an average constant speed, even when driven by a single spin connected to a single bath. When considering an ensemble of different spins, the velocity of the particle is larger when the tilt is on resonance with any of the spins' energy splitting.

Quantum interpolation for high-resolution sensing.

Recent advances in engineering and control of nanoscale quantum sensors have opened new paradigms in precision metrology. Unfortunately, hardware restrictions often limit the sensor performance. In nanoscale magnetic resonance probes, for instance, finite sampling times greatly limit the achievable sensitivity and spectral resolution.

Artificial graphene with tunable interactions.

We create an artificial graphene system with tunable interactions and study the crossover from metallic to Mott insulating regimes, both in isolated and coupled two-dimensional honeycomb layers. The artificial graphene consists of a two-component spin mixture of an ultracold atomic Fermi gas loaded into a hexagonal optical lattice. For strong repulsive interactions, we observe a suppression of double occupancy and measure a gapped excitation spectrum.