Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 31: Quantum Gases: Opt. Lattice 2

Q 31.5: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 15:30–15:45, HSZ 02

Probing Quantum Density Fluctuations of Ultracold Atoms with Matter Wave Optics — •Scott Sanderes, Florian Mintert, and Andreas Buchleitner — Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, Germany

In this talk, we discuss the utility of matter wave scattering as a means to probe quantum density fluctuations of ultracold bosons in an optical lattice. Such fluctuations are characteristic of the superfluid phase and vanish due to increased interactions in the Mott insulating phase. We employ an analytical treatment of the scattering and demonstrate that the fluctuations lead to incoherent processes, which we propose to observe via decoherence of the fringes in a Mach-Zender interferometer. In this way we extract the purely coherent part of the scattering. Further, we show that the quantum density fluctuations can also be extracted directly from the differential angular scattering cross section for an atomic beam scattered from the atoms in a lattice. Here we find an explicit dependence of the scale of the inelastic scattering on the quantum density fluctuations.