We measure the statistical distribution of the photonic local density of states in the near field of a semi-continuous gold film. By varying the distance between the measurement plane and the film, we show that near-field confined modes play a major
role in the width of the distribution. Numerical simulations in good agreement with experiments allow us to point out the influence of non-radiative decay channels at short distance.
We study atom scattering from two colliding Bose-Einstein condensates using a position sensitive, time resolved, single atom detector. In analogy to quantum optics, the process can also be thought of as spontaneous, degenerate four wave mixing of de
Broglie waves. We find a clear correlation between atoms with opposite momenta, demonstrating pair production in the scattering process. We also observe a Hanbury Brown and Twiss correlation for collinear momenta, which permits an independent measurement of the size of the pair production source and thus the size of the spatial mode. The back to back pairs occupy very nearly two oppositely directed spatial modes, a promising feature for future quantum optics experiments.
