649 research outputs found
Electronic detection of collective modes of an ultracold plasma
Using a new technique to directly detect current induced on a nearby
electrode, we measure plasma oscillations in ultracold plasmas, which are
influenced by the inhomogeneous and time-varying density and changing
neutrality. Electronic detection avoids heating and evaporation dynamics
associated with previous measurements and allows us to test the importance of
the plasma neutrality. We apply dc and pulsed electric fields to control the
electron loss rate and find that the charge imbalance of the plasma has a
significant effect on the resonant frequency, in excellent agreement with
recent predictions suggesting coupling to an edge mode
A low-loss photonic silica nanofiber for higher-order modes
Optical nanofibers confine light to subwavelength scales, and are of interest
for the design, integration, and interconnection of nanophotonic devices. Here
we demonstrate high transmission (> 97%) of the first family of excited modes
through a 350 nm radius fiber, by appropriate choice of the fiber and precise
control of the taper geometry. We can design the nanofibers so that these modes
propagate with most of their energy outside the waist region. We also present
an optical setup for selectively launching these modes with less than 1%
fundamental mode contamination. Our experimental results are in good agreement
with simulations of the propagation. Multimode optical nanofibers expand the
photonic toolbox, and may aid in the realization of a fully integrated
nanoscale device for communication science, laser science or other sensing
applications.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, movies available onlin
Strongly inhibited transport of a 1D Bose gas in a lattice
We report the observation of strongly damped dipole oscillations of a quantum
degenerate 1D atomic Bose gas in a combined harmonic and optical lattice
potential. Damping is significant for very shallow axial lattices (0.25 photon
recoil energies), and increases dramatically with increasing lattice depth,
such that the gas becomes nearly immobile for times an order of magnitude
longer than the single-particle tunneling time. Surprisingly, we see no
broadening of the atomic quasimomentum distribution after damped motion. Recent
theoretical work suggests that quantum fluctuations can strongly damp dipole
oscillations of 1D atomic Bose gas, providing a possible explanation for our
observations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Correlated photon pairs generated from a warm atomic ensemble
We present measurements of the cross-correlation function of photon pairs at
780 nm and 1367 nm, generated in a hot rubidium vapor cell. The temporal
character of the biphoton is determined by the dispersive properties of the
medium where the pair generation takes place. We show that short correlation
times occur for optically thick samples, which can be understood in terms of
off-resonant pair generation. By modifying the linear response of the sample,
we produce near-resonant photon pairs, which could in principle be used for
entanglement distribution
Cold collisions between atoms in optical lattices
We have simulated binary collisions between atoms in optical lattices during
Sisyphus cooling. Our Monte Carlo Wave Function simulations show that the
collisions selectively accelerate mainly the hotter atoms in the thermal
ensemble, and thus affect the steady state which one would normally expect to
reach in Sisyphus cooling without collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Imaging the phase of an evolving Bose-Einstein condensate wavefunction
We demonstrate a spatially resolved autocorrelation measurement with a
Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and measure the evolution of the spatial profile
of its quantum mechanical phase. Upon release of the BEC from the magnetic
trap, its phase develops a form that we measure to be quadratic in the spatial
coordinate. Our experiments also reveal the effects of the repulsive
interaction between two overlapping BEC wavepackets and we measure the small
momentum they impart to each other
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