Optics Seminar

The fractional quantum Hall effect hosts strongly correlated, topological states with exotic properties such as fractional charge and anyonic statistics. Realizing these states in scalable engineered systems holds great potential for deepening our understanding of their microscopic origins, yet it remains a challenge. We realize a minimal instance of such physics by engineering the two-particle Laughlin wavefunction using rapidly rotating, interacting fermions in an optical tweezer. With single-atom, spin-resolved imaging, we directly probe its key signatures, including vortex structure and suppressed interactions. Extending this platform, we also realize a few-body integer quantum Hall state and observe its characteristic uniform density. These results open a path toward assembling larger quantum Hall states atom by atom.