No Arabic abstract
We have performed a principle-proof-experiment of a magneto-optical diffraction (MOD) technique that requires no energy level splitting by homogeneous magnetic field and a circularly polarized optical lattice, avoiding system errors in an interferometer based on the MOD. The principle for this new MOD is that asynchronized switching of quadrupole trap and Ioffe trap in a quadrupole-Ioffe-configuration trap can generate a residual magnetic force to drive a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) to move. We have observed asymmetric atomic diffraction resulting from the asymmetric distribution of the Bloch eigenstates involved in the diffraction process when the condensate is driven by such a force, and matter-wave self-imaging due to coherent population oscillation of the dominantly occupied Bloch eigenstates. We have classified the mechanisms that lead to symmetric or asymmetric diffraction, and found that our experiment presents a magnetic alternative to a moving optical lattice, with a great potential to achieve a very large momentum transfer ($>110 hbar k$) to a BEC using well-developed magnetic trapping techniques.
We study the diffraction phase of different orders via the Dyson expansion series, for ultracold atomic gases scattered by a standing-wave pulse. As these diffraction phases are not observable in a single pulse scattering process, a temporal Talbot-Lau interferometer consisting of two standing-wave pulses is demonstrated experimentally with a Bose-Einstein condensate to explore this physical effect. The role of the diffraction phases is clearly shown by the second standing-wave pulse in the relative population of different momentum states. Our experiments demonstrate obvious effects beyond the Raman-Nath method, while agree well with our theory by including the diffraction phases. In particular, the observed asymmetry in the dependence of the relative population on the interval between two standing-wave pulses reflects the diffraction phase differences. The role of interatomic interaction in the Talbot-Lau interferometer is also discussed.
We study a highly efficient, matter-wave amplification mechanism in a longitudinally-excited, Bose-Einstein condensate and reveal a very large enhancement due to nonlinear gain from a sixmatter- optical, wave-mixing process involving four photons. Under suitable conditions this opticallydegenerate, four-photon process can be stronger than the usual two-photon inelastic light scattering mechanism, leading to nonlinear growth of the observed matter-wave scattering independent of any enhancement from bosonic stimulation. Our theoretical framework can be extended to encompass even higher-order, nonlinear superradiant processes that result in higher-order momentum transfer.
The polariton, a quasiparticle formed by strong coupling of a photon to a matter excitation, is a fundamental ingredient of emergent photonic quantum systems ranging from semiconductor nanophotonics to circuit quantum electrodynamics. Exploiting the interaction between polaritons has led to the realization of superfluids of light as well as of strongly correlated phases in the microwave domain, with similar efforts underway for microcavity exciton-polaritons. Here, we develop an ultracold-atom analogue of an exciton-polariton system in which interacting polaritonic phases can be studied with full tunability and without dissipation. In our optical-lattice system, the exciton is replaced by an atomic excitation, while an atomic matter wave is substituted for the photon under a strong dynamical coupling. We access the band structure of the matter-wave polariton spectroscopically by coupling the upper and lower polariton branches, and explore polaritonic many-body transport in the superfluid and Mott-insulating regimes, finding quantitative agreement with our theoretical expectations. Our work opens up novel possibilities for studies of polaritonic quantum matter.
Diffraction phenomena usually can be formulated in terms of a potential that induces the redistribution of a waves momentum. Using an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to the orbitals of a state-selective optical lattice, we investigate a hitherto unexplored nonadiabatic regime of diffraction in which no diffracting potential can be defined, and in which the adiabatic dressed states are strongly mixed. We show how, in the adiabatic limit, the observed coupling between internal and external dynamics gives way to standard Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of atomic matter waves. We demonstrate the utility of our scheme for atom interferometry and discuss prospects for studies of dissipative superfluid phenomena.
We study matter wave scattering from an ultracold, many body atomic system trapped in an optical lattice. We determine the angular cross section that a matter wave probe sees and show that it is strongly affected by the many body phase, superfluid or Mott insulator, of the target lattice. We determine these cross sections analytically in the first Born approximation, and we examine the variation at intermediate points in the phase transition by numerically diagonalizing the Bose Hubbard Hamiltonian for a small lattice. We show that matter wave scattering offers a convenient method for non-destructively probing the quantum many body phase transition of atoms in an optical lattice.