Hannover 2020 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 55: Matter Wave Optics

Q 55.2: Talk

Friday, March 13, 2020, 11:15–11:30, a310

Wavefront aberrations of expanding Bose-Einstein condensates — •Jan Teske and Reinhold Walser — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Hochschulstraße 4A, Darmstadt, D-64289, Germany

Micro-gravity experiments open new opportunities for quantum sensing technologies using cold atoms. In particular, the sensitivity of atom interferometers with Bose-Einstein condensates as a coherent atomic source benefit from long expansion times [1,2]. However, imperfections need to be considered carefully to avoid contrast loss in matter-wave interferometry.

For this purpose, we characterize the possible aberrations of an interacting condensate with optimal 3D basis functions, analogous to the wavefront decomposition in terms of Zernike polynomials in classical optics. We obtain analytical expressions for the hydrodynamic modes of an expanding Bose-Einstein condensate in the Thomas-Fermi limit [3,4] and compare them with numerical results.

[1] T. van Zoest et al., Science 328, 1540, (2010)
[2] D. Becker et al., Nature 562, 391 (2018)
[3] S. Stringari, PRL 77, 2360 (1996)
[4] M. Fliesser et al., PRA 56, R2533(R)