Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 15: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics I
Q 15.58: Poster
Monday, March 23, 2015, 17:00–19:00, C/Foyer
Optical bloch band spectroscopy of the 1S0 - 3P0 transition of laser cooled magnesium atoms — •Klaus Zipfel, André Kulosa, Steffen Rühmann, Dominika Fim, Nandan Jha, Steffen Sauer, Wolfgang Ertmer, and Ernst Rasel — Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
Optical atomic clocks perform spectroscopy on narrow transitions of atoms trapped in an optical lattice operated at the "magic wavelength". As in solid-state physics, such periodic optical potentials give rise to band structures caused by tunnelling of the delocalized atoms and thus can be used to simulate pure crystalline structures. By operating the lattice in a regime where the tunnelling rate becomes comparable to the observable linewidth of the narrow transition, the band structure can be observed in the frequency spectrum. We present the direct observation of bloch bands by probing the spin-forbidden 1S0 - 3P0 transition of laser cooled magnesium atoms trapped in an optical lattice operated at the magic wavelength. For trap depths of 10 recoil energies the band width is around 3 kHz which corresponds to the current resolution of the probed transition. In this regime a shift resulting in a symmetric splitting to a doublet structure in the order of the band width has been observed.