Optical Production of Stable Ultracold 88^{88}Sr2_2 Molecules

We have produced large samples of ultracold $^{88}$Sr$_2$ molecules in the electronic ground state in an optical lattice. The molecules are bound by 0.05 cm$^{-1}$ and are stable for several milliseconds. The fast, all-optical method of molecule creation via intercombination line photoassociation relies on a near-unity Franck-Condon factor. The detection uses a weakly bound vibrational level corresponding to a very large dimer. This is the first of two steps needed to create Sr$_2$ in the absolute ground quantum state. Lattice-trapped Sr$_2$ is of interest to frequency metrology and ultracold chemistry.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Squeezing and entangling nuclear spins in helium 3

We present a realistic model for transferring the squeezing or the entanglement of optical field modes to the collective ground state nuclear spin of $^3$He using metastability exchange collisions. We discuss in detail the requirements for obtaining good quantum state transfer efficiency and study the possibility to readout the nuclear spin state optically

Transport of Atom Packets in a Train of Ioffe-Pritchard Traps

We demonstrate transport and evaporative cooling of several atomic clouds in a chain of magnetic Ioffe-Pritchard traps moving at a low speed ($<1$~m/s). The trapping scheme relies on the use of a magnetic guide for transverse confinement and of magnets fixed on a conveyor belt for longitudinal trapping. This experiment introduces a new approach for parallelizing the production of Bose-Einstein condensates as well as for the realization of a continuous atom laser

A quasi-monomode guided atom-laser from an all-optical Bose-Einstein condensate

We report the achievement of an optically guided and quasi-monomode atom laser, in all spin projection states ($m_F =$ -1, 0 and $+1$) of F=1 in Rubidium 87. The atom laser source is a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a crossed dipole trap, purified to any one spin projection state by a spin-distillation process applied during the evaporation to BEC. The atom laser is outcoupled by an inhomogenous magnetic field, applied along the waveguide axis. The mean excitation number in the transverse modes is $= 0.65 \pm 0.05$ for $m_F = 0$ and $= 0.8 \pm 0.3$ for the low field seeker $m_F = -1$

Optimal transport of ultracold atoms in the non-adiabatic regime

We report the transport of ultracold atoms with optical tweezers in the non-adiabatic regime, i.e. on a time scale on the order of the oscillation period. We have found a set of discrete transport durations for which the transport is not accompanied by any excitation of the centre of mass of the cloud. We show that the residual amplitude of oscillation of the dipole mode is given by the Fourier transform of the velocity profile imposed to the trap for the transport. This formalism leads to a simple interpretation of our data and simple methods for optimizing trapped particles displacement in the non-adiabatic regime

Evaporative Cooling of a Guided Rubidium Atomic Beam

We report on our recent progress in the manipulation and cooling of a magnetically guided, high flux beam of $^{87}{\rm Rb}$ atoms. Typically $7\times 10^9$ atoms per second propagate in a magnetic guide providing a transverse gradient of 800 G/cm, with a temperature $\sim550$ $\mu$K, at an initial velocity of 90 cm/s. The atoms are subsequently slowed down to $\sim 60$ cm/s using an upward slope. The relatively high collision rate (5 s$^{-1}$) allows us to start forced evaporative cooling of the beam, leading to a reduction of the beam temperature by a factor of ~4, and a ten-fold increase of the on-axis phase-space density.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Long-lived quantum memory with nuclear atomic spins

We propose to store non-classical states of light into the macroscopic collective nuclear spin ($10^{18}$ atoms) of a $^3$He vapor, using metastability exchange collisions. These collisions, commonly used to transfer orientation from the metastable state $2^{3}S\_1$ to the ground state state of $^3$He, can also transfer quantum correlations. This gives a possible experimental scheme to map a squeezed vacuum field state onto a nuclear spin state with very long storage times (hours).Comment: 4 page

Incidencia de bajas dosis de N, P Y S sobre el rendimiento de cebolla Valenciana (Variedad sintética 14)

During the growing season of 1988/89 a trial was held in the large vegetable experimental field at the Agronomy Faculty of the University of La Pampa, under square latin design 5 x 5. Fertilizers of N, P and S were applied to the Synthetical Variety 14 of Valenciana onion. The main objective was to determine the influence of N and its interaction of P and S upon final yield. The fertilizars were: Urea; H(NH4)2 PO4 + Urea; (NH4)2 SO4 +Urea; (NH4)2 SO4 +H(NH4)2 PO4 +Urea and tester. All doses were adjust in such manner all plots had the same amount on N, in order to compare its effects. Highly significantive differences were observed between treatments. With respect to entire plant's weight expose to the air, T2 overcame significantly to Tc and T1. Calcium, Magnesium, phosphorus, crude protein and water contens were analyzed in lab and the results are considered normal. According to the results obtained in the current trial, it might be suggested to fertilize onion with compounds including N and Pinto their composition.En el ciclo 1988/89 se realizó en la Huerta Experimental de la Fac. de Agron. de la UNLPam, un ensayo en cuadrado latino 5 x 5, de aplicaci6n de fertilizantes con N, P Y S, en cultivo de "cebollas" variedad sintética 14. El objetivo fue constatar la incidencia del N y su interacción con el P y S sobre el rendimiento del cultivo. Los fertilizantes empleados fueron: Urea; H (NH4)2 PO4 +Urea; (NH4) 2 SO4 +Urea; (NH4) SO4 +H(NH4)2 PO4 +Urea y testigo. En todos los casos las dosis se ajustaron de tal manera que, todas las parcelas en que se aplicaron fertilizantes, vieran la misma cantidad de N para poder comparar sus efectos. En cuanto a los rendimientos de los tratamientos si se observaron diferencias significativas". Respecto al peso planta entera oreada, T2 superó significativamente a TO y T1. También se analizó en laboratorio al contenido de calcio, magnesio, fósforo, proteína cruda y agua siendo sus valores normales. Sobre la base de los resultados obtenidos en el presente ensayo se aconsejaría fertilizar la cebolla con compuestos que tengan N y P en su composición

Nonlinear atom interferometer surpasses classical precision limit

Interference is fundamental to wave dynamics and quantum mechanics. The quantum wave properties of particles are exploited in metrology using atom interferometers, allowing for high-precision inertia measurements [1, 2]. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art time standard is based on an interferometric technique known as Ramsey spectroscopy. However, the precision of an interferometer is limited by classical statistics owing to the finite number of atoms used to deduce the quantity of interest [3]. Here we show experimentally that the classical precision limit can be surpassed using nonlinear atom interferometry with a Bose-Einstein condensate. Controlled interactions between the atoms lead to non-classical entangled states within the interferometer; this represents an alternative approach to the use of non-classical input states [4-8]. Extending quantum interferometry [9] to the regime of large atom number, we find that phase sensitivity is enhanced by 15 per cent relative to that in an ideal classical measurement. Our nonlinear atomic beam splitter follows the "one-axis-twisting" scheme [10] and implements interaction control using a narrow Feshbach resonance. We perform noise tomography of the quantum state within the interferometer and detect coherent spin squeezing with a squeezing factor of -8.2dB [11-15]. The results provide information on the many-particle quantum state, and imply the entanglement of 170 atoms [16]

Squeezing and entanglement in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Entanglement, a key feature of quantum mechanics, is a resource that allows the improvement of precision measurements beyond the conventional bound reachable by classical means. This is known as the standard quantum limit, already defining the accuracy of the best available sensors for various quantities such as time or position. Many of these sensors are interferometers in which the standard quantum limit can be overcome by feeding their two input ports with quantum-entangled states, in particular spin squeezed states. For atomic interferometers, Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms are considered good candidates to provide such states involving a large number of particles. In this letter, we demonstrate their experimental realization by splitting a condensate in a few parts using a lattice potential. Site resolved detection of the atoms allows the measurement of the conjugated variables atom number difference and relative phase. The observed fluctuations imply entanglement between the particles, a resource that would allow a precision gain of 3.8 dB over the standard quantum limit for interferometric measurements