331 research outputs found
Enhanced heat flow in the hydrodynamic-collisionless regime
We study the heat conduction of a cold, thermal cloud in a highly asymmetric
trap. The cloud is axially hydrodynamic, but due to the asymmetric trap
radially collisionless. By locally heating the cloud we excite a thermal dipole
mode and measure its oscillation frequency and damping rate. We find an
unexpectedly large heat conduction compared to the homogeneous case. The
enhanced heat conduction in this regime is partially caused by atoms with a
high angular momentum spiraling in trajectories around the core of the cloud.
Since atoms in these trajectories are almost collisionless they strongly
contribute to the heat transfer. We observe a second, oscillating hydrodynamic
mode, which we identify as a standing wave sound mode.Comment: Sumitted to Phys. Rev. Letters, 4 pages, 4 figure
Reaching the hydrodynamic regime in a Bose-Einstein condensate by suppression of avalanche
We report the realization of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in the
hydrodynamic regime. The hydrodynamic regime is reached by evaporative cooling
at a relative low density suppressing the effect of avalanches. With the
suppression of avalanches a BEC containing 120.10^6 atoms is produced. The
collisional opacity can be tuned from the collisionless regime to a collisional
opacity of more than 3 by compressing the trap after condensation. In the
collisional opaque regime a significant heating of the cloud at time scales
shorter than half of the radial trap period is measured. This is direct proof
that the BEC is hydrodynamic.Comment: Article submitted for Phys. Rev. Letters, 6 figure
Imaging trapped quantum gases by off-axis holography
We present a dispersive imaging method for trapped quantum gases based on
digital off-axis holography. Both phase delay and intensity of the probe field
are determined from the same image. Due to the heterodyne gain inherent to the
holographic method it is possible to retrieve the phase delay induced by the
atoms at probe beam doses two orders of magnitude lower than phase-contrast
imaging methods. Using the full field of the probe beam we numerically correct
for image defocusing.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Quantum trajectory pictures of laser cooling
We have applied the method of single atom trajectories to study the mechanism behind some
cooling schemes in laser cooling. In several cases we recognize the cooling mechanism as being due
to a "Sisyphus" process, where the atoms move in a spatially varying light shift potential and are
optically pumped towards the most light shifted states. In other cases we identify a "Sisyphus"
process in time, where the light shift is constant and the force on the atom alternates between
positive and negative. This process is interrupted by quantum jumps at random instants and in
each case we depict the mechanism leading to a cooling force on the atom. In the special case of
sub-Doppler laser cooling in a strong magnetic field we obtain 12 jump operators and identify the
jump operators responsible for the cooling. The versatility of the single atom trajectory method
allows it to be applied to any cooling process and is therefore a very valuable tool in unraveling the
physical mechanisms behind cooling processes
Analysis of Photoassociation Spectra for Giant Helium Dimers
We perform a theoretical analysis to interpret the spectra of purely
long-range helium dimers produced by photoassociation (PA) in an ultra-cold gas
of metastable helium atoms. The experimental spectrum obtained with the PA
laser tuned closed to the atomic line has been
reported in a previous Letter. Here, we first focus on the corrections to be
applied to the measured resonance frequencies in order to infer the molecular
binding energies. We then present a calculation of the vibrational spectra for
the purely long-range molecular states, using adiabatic potentials obtained
from perturbation theory. With retardation effects taken into account, the
agreement between experimental and theoretical determinations of the spectrum
for the purely long-range potential well is very good. The results
yield a determination of the lifetime of the atomic state
Large atom number Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium
We describe the setup to create a large Bose-Einstein condensate containing
more than 120x10^6 atoms. In the experiment a thermal beam is slowed by a
Zeeman slower and captured in a dark-spot magneto-optical trap (MOT). A typical
dark-spot MOT in our experiments contains 2.0x10^10 atoms with a temperature of
320 microK and a density of about 1.0x10^11 atoms/cm^3. The sample is spin
polarized in a high magnetic field, before the atoms are loaded in the magnetic
trap. Spin polarizing in a high magnetic field results in an increase in the
transfer efficiency by a factor of 2 compared to experiments without spin
polarizing. In the magnetic trap the cloud is cooled to degeneracy in 50 s by
evaporative cooling. To suppress the 3-body losses at the end of the
evaporation the magnetic trap is decompressed in the axial direction.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Review Of Scientific Instrument
On the Role of Penning Ionization in Photoassociation Spectroscopy
We study the role of Penning ionization on the photoassociation spectra of
He(^3S)-He(^3S). The experimental setup is discussed and experimental results
for different intensities of the probe laser are shown. For modelling the
experimental results we consider coupled-channel calculations of the crossing
of the ground state with the excited state at the Condon point. The
coupled-channel calculations are first applied to model systems, where we
consider two coupled channels without ionization, two coupled channels with
ionization, and three coupled channels, for which only one of the excited
states is ionizing. Finally, coupled-channel calculations are applied to
photoassociation of He(^3S)-He(^3S) and good agreement is obtained between the
model and the experimental results.Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures, submitted to the special issue on Cold
Molecules of J. Phys.
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