No Arabic abstract
We report the all-optical production of Bose Einstein condensates (BEC) of $^{39}$K atoms. We directly load $3 times 10^{7}$ atoms in a large volume optical dipole trap from gray molasses on the D1 transition. We then apply a small magnetic quadrupole field to polarize the sample before transferring the atoms in a tightly confining optical trap. Evaporative cooling is finally performed close to a Feshbach resonance to enhance the scattering length. Our setup allows to cross the BEC threshold with $3 times 10^5$ atoms every 7s. As an illustration of the interest of the tunability of the interactions we study the expansion of Bose-Einstein condensates in the 1D to 3D crossover.
We present a method for producing three-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensates using only laser cooling. The phase transition to condensation is crossed with $2.5 {times} 10^{4}$ $^{87}mathrm{Rb}$ atoms at a temperature of $T_{mathrm{c}} = 0.6 mumathrm{K}$ after 1.4 s of cooling. Atoms are trapped in a crossed optical dipole trap and cooled using Raman cooling with far-off-resonant optical pumping light to reduce atom loss and heating. The achieved temperatures are well below the effective recoil temperature. We find that during the final cooling stage at atomic densities above $10^{14} mathrm{cm}^{-3}$, careful tuning of trap depth and optical-pumping rate is necessary to evade heating and loss mechanisms. The method may enable the fast production of quantum degenerate gases in a variety of systems including fermions.
Space offers virtually unlimited free-fall in gravity. Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) enables ineffable low kinetic energies corresponding to pico- or even femtokelvins. The combination of both features makes atom interferometers with unprecedented sensitivity for inertial forces possible and opens a new era for quantum gas experiments. On January 23, 2017, we created Bose-Einstein condensates in space on the sounding rocket mission MAIUS-1 and conducted 110 experiments central to matter-wave interferometry. In particular, we have explored laser cooling and trapping in the presence of large accelerations as experienced during launch, and have studied the evolution, manipulation and interferometry employing Bragg scattering of BECs during the six-minute space flight. In this letter, we focus on the phase transition and the collective dynamics of BECs, whose impact is magnified by the extended free-fall time. Our experiments demonstrate a high reproducibility of the manipulation of BECs on the atom chip reflecting the exquisite control features and the robustness of our experiment. These properties are crucial to novel protocols for creating quantum matter with designed collective excitations at the lowest kinetic energy scales close to femtokelvins.
To investigate the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation in perfect crystals a hierarchy of equations for reduced density matrices that describes a thermodynamically equilibrium quantum system is employed, the hierarchy being obtained earlier by the author. The thermodynamics of a crystal with a condensate and the one of a crystal with no condensate are constructed in parallel, which is required for studying the phase transition involving Bose-Einstein condensation. The transition is analysed also with the help of the Landau theory of phase transitions which shows that a superfluid state can result either from two consecutive phase transitions or from only one. To demonstrate how the general equations obtained can be applied for a concrete crystal the bifurcation method for solving the equations is utilized. New results concerning properties of the condensate crystals at zero temperature are obtained as well. In the concluding section, the physical concept of the condensate is discussed.
Robust cooling and nondestructive imaging are prerequisites for many emerging applications of neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers, such as their use in quantum information science and analog quantum simulation. The tasks of cooling and imaging can be challenged, however, by the presence of large trap-induced shifts of their respective optical transitions. Here, we explore a system of $^{39}$K atoms trapped in a near-detuned ($780$ nm) optical tweezer, which leads to relatively minor differential (ground vs. excited state) Stark shifts. We demonstrate that simple and robust loading, cooling, and imaging can be achieved through a combined addressing of the D$_textrm{1}$ and D$_textrm{2}$ transitions. While imaging on the D$_textrm{2}$ transition, we can simultaneously apply $Lambda$-enhanced gray molasses (GM) on the D$_textrm{1}$ transition, preserving low backgrounds for single-atom imaging through spectral filtering. Using D$_textrm{1}$ cooling during and after trap loading, we demonstrate enhanced loading efficiencies as well as cooling to low temperatures. These results suggest a simple and robust path for loading and cooling large arrays of potassium atoms in optical tweezers through the use of resource-efficient near-detuned optical tweezers and GM cooling.
Multiply-connected traps for cold, neutral atoms fix vortex cores of quantum gases. Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes are ideal for such traps due to their phase stability. We report theoretical calculations of the Bose-Einstein condensation transition properties and thermal characteristics of neutral atoms trapped in multiply connected geometries formed by Laguerre-Gaussian LG{p}{l} beams. Specifically, we consider atoms confined to the anti-node of a LG{0}{1} laser mode detuned to the red of an atomic resonance frequency, and those confined in the node of a blue-detuned LG{1}{1} beam. We compare the results of using the full potential to those approximating the potential minimum with a simple harmonic oscillator potential. We find that deviations between calculations of the full potential and the simple harmonic oscillator can be up to 3%-8% for trap parameters consistent with typical experiments.