Inducing spin-dependent tunneling to probe magnetic correlations in optical lattices

We suggest a simple experimental method for probing antiferromagnetic spin correlations of two-component Fermi gases in optical lattices. The method relies on a spin selective Raman transition to excite atoms of one spin species to their first excited vibrational mode where the tunneling is large. The resulting difference in the tunneling dynamics of the two spin species can then be exploited, to reveal the spin correlations by measuring the number of doubly occupied lattice sites at a later time. We perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the spin system and solve the optical lattice dynamics numerically to show how the timed probe can be used to identify antiferromagnetic spin correlations in optical lattices.