33 research outputs found
Diffraction of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in the Time Domain
We have observed the diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium
atoms on a vibrating mirror potential. The matter wave packet bounces back at
normal incidence on a blue-detuned evanescent light field after a 3.6 mm free
fall. The mirror vibrates at a frequency of 500 kHz with an amplitude of 3.0
nm. The atomic carrier and sidebands are directly imaged during their ballistic
expansion. The locations and the relative weights of the diffracted atomic wave
packets are in very good agreement with the theoretical prediction of Carsten
Henkel et al. [1].Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.
A Bose-Einstein condensate bouncing off a rough mirror
We present experimental results and theoretical analysis of the diffuse
reflection of a Bose-Einstein condensate from a rough mirror. The mirror is
produced by a blue-detuned evanescent wave supported by a dielectric substrate.
The results are carefully analysed via a comparison with a numerical
simulation. The scattering is clearly anisotropic, more pronounced in the
direction of the evanescent wave surface propagation, as predicted
theoretically
Schemes for loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into a two-dimensional dipole trap
We propose two loading mechanisms of a degenerate Bose gas into a surface
trap. This trap relies on the dipole potential produced by two evanescent
optical waves far detuned from the atomic resonance, yielding a strongly
anisotropic trap with typical frequencies 40 Hz x 65 Hz x 30 kHz. We present
numerical simulations based on the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation of
the transfer process from a conventional magnetic trap into the surface trap.
We show that, despite a large discrepancy between the oscillation frequencies
along one direction in the initial and final traps, a loading time of a few
tens of milliseconds would lead to an adiabatic transfer. Preliminary
experimental results are presented
Strong atom-field coupling for Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical cavity on a chip
An optical cavity enhances the interaction between atoms and light, and the
rate of coherent atom-photon coupling can be made larger than all decoherence
rates of the system. For single atoms, this strong coupling regime of cavity
quantum electrodynamics (cQED) has been the subject of spectacular experimental
advances, and great efforts have been made to control the coupling rate by
trapping and cooling the atom towards the motional ground state, which has been
achieved in one dimension so far. For N atoms, the three-dimensional ground
state of motion is routinely achieved in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
(BECs), but although first experiments combining BECs and optical cavities have
been reported recently, coupling BECs to strong-coupling cavities has remained
an elusive goal. Here we report such an experiment, which is made possible by
combining a new type of fibre-based cavity with atom chip technology. This
allows single-atom cQED experiments with a simplified setup and realizes the
new situation of N atoms in a cavity each of which is identically and strongly
coupled to the cavity mode. Moreover, the BEC can be positioned
deterministically anywhere within the cavity and localized entirely within a
single antinode of the standing-wave cavity field. This gives rise to a
controlled, tunable coupling rate, as we confirm experimentally. We study the
heating rate caused by a cavity transmission measurement as a function of the
coupling rate and find no measurable heating for strongly coupled BECs. The
spectrum of the coupled atoms-cavity system, which we map out over a wide range
of atom numbers and cavity-atom detunings, shows vacuum Rabi splittings
exceeding 20 gigahertz, as well as an unpredicted additional splitting which we
attribute to the atomic hyperfine structure.Comment: 20 pages. Revised version following referees' comments. Detailed
notes adde
Fiber Fabry-Perot cavity with high finesse
We have realized a fiber-based Fabry-Perot cavity with CO2 laser-machined
mirrors. It combines very small size, high finesse F>=130000, small waist and
mode volume, and good mode matching between the fiber and cavity modes. This
combination of features is a major advance for cavity quantum electrodynamics
(CQED), as shown in recent CQED experiments with Bose-Einstein condensates
enabled by this cavity [Y. Colombe et al., Nature 450, 272 (2007)]. It should
also be suitable for a wide range of other applications, including coupling to
solid-state emitters, gas detection at the single-particle level, fiber-coupled
single-photon sources and high-resolution optical filters with large stopband.Comment: Submitted to New J. Phys