Abstract

The interplay of magnetic exchange interactions and tunneling underlies many complex quantum phenomena observed in real materials. We study nonequilibrium magnetization dynamics in an extended two-dimensional (2D) system by loading effective spin-1/2 bosons into a spin-dependent optical lattice and use the lattice to separately control the resonance conditions for tunneling and superexchange. After preparing a nonequilibrium antiferromagnetically ordered state, we observe relaxation dynamics governed by two well-separated rates, which scale with the parameters associated with superexchange and tunneling. With tunneling off-resonantly suppressed, we observe superexchange-dominated dynamics over two orders of magnitude in magnetic coupling strength. Our experiment will serve as a benchmark for future theoretical work as the detailed dynamics of this 2D, strongly correlated, and far-from-equilibrium quantum system remain out of reach of current computational techniques.

Publication Details
Publication Type
Journal Article
Year of Publication
2015
Volume
348
Number of Pages
540-544
DOI
10.1126/science.aaa1385
Journal
Science
Contributors
Date Published
04/2015