Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 40: Quantengase (Bosonen I)

Q 40.7: Talk

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 15:30–15:45, 1A

Bose-Einstein condensates and optical waveguides — •J. Nes, S. Hertsch, M. Krutzik, T. Lauber, O. Wille, and G. Birkl — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstr. 7, 64289 Darmstadt

Achieving Bose-Einstein condensation in optical potentials has been tried since the early days of laser cooling. The first BEC in a dipole trap was created with a CO2 laser. Since then, achieving BEC in optical potentials is routine. However, using a CO2 laser to trap and evaporate atoms is favourable for some, but might be inconvenient for other implementations. Therefore, several groups have been trying to create BECs by trapping atoms with lasers with lower wavelengths. So far, only few groups have reached condensation with a laser having a wavelength in the one micron range by simple means.

Our work aims at creating ultracold atom samples in the sub-microKelvin temperature range and especially BECs, in a crossed optical dipole trap made with a laser with a wavelength of 1030 nm. After reaching these temperatures, the atoms are transferred into an optical guiding or storing structure created by microfabricated optical elements, so that the coherence properties can be studied. One of our projects is to guide the atoms along a waveguide and past a corrugated optical potential surface, such as an optical lattice, in order to investigate the modification of the wavepacket dynamics as compared to an uncorrugated guiding structure.