Confinement-Induced Resonances in Low-Dimensional Quantum Systems

We report on the observation of confinement-induced resonances in strongly interacting quantum-gas systems with tunable interactions for one- and two-dimensional geometry. Atom-atom scattering is substantially modified when the s-wave scattering length approaches the length scale associated with the tight transversal confinement, leading to characteristic loss and heating signatures. Upon introducing an anisotropy for the transversal confinement we observe a splitting of the confinement-induced resonance. With increasing anisotropy additional resonances appear. In the limit of a two-dimensional system we find that one resonance persists.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Inducing Transport in a Dissipation-Free Lattice with Super Bloch Oscillations

Particles in a perfect lattice potential perform Bloch oscillations when subject to a constant force, leading to localization and preventing conductivity. For a weakly-interacting Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of Cs atoms, we observe giant center-of-mass oscillations in position space with a displacement across hundreds of lattice sites when we add a periodic modulation to the force near the Bloch frequency. We study the dependence of these "super" Bloch oscillations on lattice depth, modulation amplitude, and modulation frequency and show that they provide a means to induce linear transport in a dissipation-free lattice. Surprisingly, we find that, for an interacting quantum system, super Bloch oscillations strongly suppress the appearance of dynamical instabilities and, for our parameters, increase the phase-coherence time by more than a factor of hundred.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Preparation and spectroscopy of a metastable Mott insulator state with attractive interactions

We prepare and study a metastable attractive Mott insulator state formed with bosonic atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Starting from a Mott insulator with Cs atoms at weak repulsive interactions, we use a magnetic Feshbach resonance to tune the interactions to large attractive values and produce a metastable state pinned by attractive interactions with a lifetime on the order of 10 seconds. We probe the (de-)excitation spectrum via lattice modulation spectroscopy, measuring the interaction dependence of two- and three-body bound state energies. As a result of increased on-site three-body loss we observe resonance broadening and suppression of tunneling processes that produce three-body occupation.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves

We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution, allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to tenth order

Advantages of acute brain slices prepared at physiological temperature in the characterization of synaptic functions

Acute brain slice preparation is a powerful experimental model for investigating the characteristics of synaptic function in the brain. Although brain tissue is usually cut at ice-cold temperature (CT) to facilitate slicing and avoid neuronal damage, exposure to CT causes molecular and architectural changes of synapses. To address these issues, we investigated ultrastructural and electrophysiological features of synapses in mouse acute cerebellar slices prepared at ice-cold and physiological temperature (PT). In the slices prepared at CT, we found significant spine loss and reconstruction, synaptic vesicle rearrangement and decrease in synaptic proteins, all of which were not detected in slices prepared at PT. Consistent with these structural findings, slices prepared at PT showed higher release probability. Furthermore, preparation at PT allows electrophysiological recording immediately after slicing resulting in higher detectability of long-term depression (LTD) after motor learning compared with that at CT. These results indicate substantial advantages of the slice preparation at PT for investigating synaptic functions in different physiological conditions

Deeply bound ultracold molecules in an optical lattice

We demonstrate efficient transfer of ultracold molecules into a deeply bound rovibrational level of the singlet ground state potential in the presence of an optical lattice. The overall molecule creation efficiency is 25%, and the transfer efficiency to the rovibrational level vertical bar v = 73, J = 2 > is above 80%. We find that the molecules in vertical bar v = 73, J = 2 > are trapped in the optical lattice, and that the lifetime in the lattice is limited by optical excitation by the lattice light. The molecule trapping time for a lattice depth of 15 atomic recoil energies is about 20 ms. We determine the trapping frequency by the lattice phase and amplitude modulation technique. It will now be possible to transfer the molecules to the rovibrational ground state vertical bar v = 0, J = 0 > in the presence of the optical lattice

Interference of interacting matter waves

The phenomenon of matter-wave interference lies at the heart of quantum physics. It has been observed in various contexts in the limit of non-interacting particles as a single-particle effect. Here we observe and control matter-wave interference whose evolution is driven by interparticle interactions. In a multi-path matter-wave interferometer, the macroscopic many-body wave function of an interacting atomic Bose-Einstein condensate develops a regular interference pattern, allowing us to detect and directly visualize the effect of interaction-induced phase shifts. We demonstrate control over the phase evolution by inhibiting interaction-induced dephasing and by refocusing a dephased macroscopic matter wave in a spin-echo-type experiment. Our results show that interactions in a many-body system lead to a surprisingly coherent evolution, possibly enabling narrow-band and high-brightness matter-wave interferometers based on atom lasers

Three-body correlation functions and recombination rates for bosons in three and one dimensions

We investigate local three-body correlations for bosonic particles in three and one dimensions as a function of the interaction strength. The three-body correlation function g(3) is determined by measuring the three-body recombination rate in an ultracold gas of Cs atoms. In three dimensions, we measure the dependence of g(3) on the gas parameter in a BEC, finding good agreement with the theoretical prediction accounting for beyond-mean-field effects. In one dimension, we observe a reduction of g(3) by several orders of magnitude upon increasing interactions from the weakly interacting BEC to the strongly interacting Tonks-Girardeau regime, in good agreement with predictions from the Lieb-Liniger model for all strengths of interaction.Comment: 5 figure

Quantum Gas of Deeply Bound Ground State Molecules

We create an ultracold dense quantum gas of ground state molecules bound by more than 1000 wavenumbers by stimulated two-photon transfer of molecules associated on a Feshbach resonance from a Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium atoms. The transfer efficiency exceeds 80%. In the process, the initial loose, long-range electrostatic bond of the Feshbach molecule is coherently transformed into a tight chemical bond. We demonstrate coherence of the transfer in a Ramsey-type experiment and show that the molecular sample is not heated during the transfer. Our results show that the preparation of a quantum gas of molecules in arbitrary rovibrational states is possible and that the creation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of molecules in their rovibronic ground state is within reach.Comment: 4 figure

Precision molecular spectroscopy for ground state transfer of molecular quantum gases

One possibility for the creation of ultracold, high-phase-space-density quantum gases of molecules in the rovibrational ground state relies on first associating weakly-bound molecules from quantum-degenerate atomic gases on a Feshbach resonance and then transfering the molecules via several steps of coherent two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) into the rovibronic ground state. Here, in ultracold samples of Cs_2 Feshbach molecules produced out of ultracold samples of Cs atoms, we observe several optical transitions to deeply bound rovibrational levels of the excited 0_u^+ molecular potentials with high resolution. At least one of these transitions, although rather weak, allows efficient STIRAP transfer into the deeply bound vibrational level |v=73> of the singlet X ^1Sigma_g^+ ground state potential, as recently demonstrated. From this level, the rovibrational ground state level |v=0, J=0> can be reached with one more transfer step. In total, our results show that coherent ground state transfer for Cs_2 is possible using a maximum of two successive two-photon processes or one single four-photon STIRAP process.Comment: 6 figures, 1 tabl