74 research outputs found
Cavity Mode Frequencies and Strong Optomechanical Coupling in Two-Membrane Cavity Optomechanics
We study the cavity mode frequencies of a Fabry-P\'erot cavity containing two
vibrating dielectric membranes. We derive the equations for the mode resonances
and provide approximate analytical solutions for them as a function of the
membrane positions, which act as an excellent approximation when the relative
and center-of-mass position of the two membranes are much smaller than the
cavity length. With these analytical solutions, one finds that extremely large
optomechanical coupling of the membrane relative motion can be achieved in the
limit of highly reflective membranes when the two membranes are placed very
close to a resonance of the inner cavity formed by them. We also study the
cavity finesse of the system and verify that, under the conditions of large
coupling, it is not appreciably affected by the presence of the two membranes.
The achievable large values of the ratio between the optomechanical coupling
and the cavity decay rate, , make this two-membrane system the
simplest promising platform for implementing cavity optomechanics in the strong
coupling regime.Comment: Contribution to the special issue on "Nano-optomechanics" in Journal
of Optics, edited by I. Wilson-Rae, J. Sankey and H. Offerhau
Generation and detection of large and robust entanglement between two different mechanical resonators in cavity optomechanics
We investigate a general scheme for generating, either dynamically or in the
steady state, continuous variable entanglement between two mechanical
resonators with different frequencies. We employ an optomechanical system in
which a single optical cavity mode driven by a suitably chosen two-tone field
is coupled to the two resonators. Significantly large mechanical entanglement
can be achieved, which is extremely robust with respect to temperature.Comment: To appear in New J. Phys. Small extensions in response to the points
raised by the referee and Refs adde
Sensitivity-bandwidth limit in a multi-mode opto-electro-mechanical transducer
An opto--electro--mechanical system formed by a nanomembrane capacitively
coupled to an LC resonator and to an optical interferometer has been recently
employed for the high--sensitive optical readout of radio frequency (RF)
signals [T. Bagci, \emph{et~al.}, Nature {\bf 507}, 81 (2013)]. Here we propose
and experimentally demonstrate how the bandwidth of such kind of transducer can
be increased by controlling the interference between two--electromechanical
interaction pathways of a two--mode mechanical system. With a
proof--of--principle device \new{operating at room temperature, we achieve a
sensitivity of 300 nV/Hz^(1/2) over a bandwidth of 15 kHz in the presence of
radiofrequency noise, and an optimal shot-noise limited sensitivity of 10
nV/Hz^(1/2) over a bandwidth of 5 kHz. We discuss strategies for improving the
performance of the device, showing that, for the same given sensitivity, a
mechanical multi--mode transducer can achieve a bandwidth} significantly larger
than that of a single-mode one
Rydberg excitation of a Bose-Einstein condensate
We have performed two-photon excitation via the 6P3/2 state to n=50-80 S or D
Rydberg state in Bose-Einstein condensates of rubidium atoms. The Rydberg
excitation was performed in a quartz cell, where electric fields generated by
plates external to the cell created electric charges on the cell walls.
Avoiding accumulation of the charges and realizing good control over the
applied electric field was obtained when the fields were applied only for a
short time, typically a few microseconds. Rydberg excitations of the
Bose-Einstein condensates loaded into quasi one-dimensional traps and in
optical lattices have been investigated. The results for condensates expanded
to different sizes in the one-dimensional trap agree well with the intuitive
picture of a chain of Rydberg excitations controlled by the dipole-dipole
interaction. The optical lattice applied along the one-dimensional geometry
produces localized, collective Rydberg excitations controlled by the
nearest-neighbour blockade.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, Laser Physics in press. arXiv admin note: text
overlap with arXiv:1103.423
Instabilities of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a periodic potential: an experimental investigation
By accelerating a Bose-Einstein condensate in a controlled way across the
edge of the Brillouin zone of a 1D optical lattice, we investigate the
stability of the condensate in the vicinity of the zone edge. Through an
analysis of the visibility of the interference pattern after a time-of-flight
and the widths of the interference peaks, we characterize the onset of
instability as the acceleration of the lattice is decreased. We briefly discuss
the significance of our results with respect to recent theoretical work.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; submitted to Optics Express (Focus Issue on Cold
Atomic Gases in Optical Lattices
Full counting statistics and phase diagram of a dissipative Rydberg gas
Ultra-cold gases excited to strongly interacting Rydberg states are a
promising system for quantum simulations of many-body systems. For off-resonant
excitation of such systems in the dissipative regime, highly correlated
many-body states exhibiting, among other characteristics, intermittency and
multi-modal counting distributions are expected to be created. So far,
experiments with Rydberg atoms have been carried out in the resonant,
non-dissipative regime. Here we realize a dissipative gas of rubidium Rydberg
atoms and measure its full counting statistics for both resonant and
off-resonant excitation. We find strongly bimodal counting distributions in the
off-resonant regime that are compatible with intermittency due to the
coexistence of dynamical phases. Moreover, we measure the phase diagram of the
system and find good agreement with recent theoretical predictions. Our results
pave the way towards detailed studies of many-body effects in Rydberg gases.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Asymmetric Landau-Zener tunneling in a periodic potential
Using a simple model for nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling between two energy
bands of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a periodic potential, we find that the
tunneling rates for the two directions of tunneling are not the same. Tunneling
from the ground state to the excited state is enhanced by the nonlinearity,
whereas in the opposite direction it is suppressed. These findings are
confirmed by numerical simulations of the condensate dynamics. Measuring the
tunneling rates for a condensate of rubidium atoms in an optical lattice, we
have found experimental evidence for this asymmetry.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Measurement of the Spin-forbidden Decay rate (3s3d)D (3s3p)P in Mg
We have measured the spin-forbidden decay rate from (3s3d)D
(3s3p)P in Mg atoms trapped in a magneto-optical trap. The
total decay rate, summing up both exit channels (3s3p)P and
(3s3p)P, yields (196 10) s in excellent agreement with
resent relativistic many-body calculations of [S.G. Porsev et al., Phys. Rev.
A. \textbf{64}, 012508 (2001)]. The characterization of this decay channel is
important as it may limit the performance of quantum optics experiments carried
out with this ladder system as well as two-photon cooling experiments currently
explored in several groups.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Ion detection in the photoionization of a Rb Bose-Einstein condensate
Two-photon ionization of Rubidium atoms in a magneto-optical trap and a
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is experimentally investigated. Using 100 ns
laser pulses, we detect single ions photoionized from the condenstate with a
35(10)% efficiency. The measurements are performed using a quartz cell with
external electrodes, allowing large optical access for BECs and optical
lattices.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure
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