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IEEE LEOS Scottish Chapter


2006-07 Meetings

Prof Tilman Esslinger, ETH Zurich

"Fermionic atoms in a crystal structure of light"

2.30 pm, 15th November 2006

Room EM 244 Mountbatten Building, Heriot-Watt University

Abstract

A general introduction to the physics of ultracold atoms in optical lattices will be given. These systems provide a new avenue for designing and studying many-body quantum systems. Exposed to the crystal structure of interfering laser waves the fermionic atoms behave much like electrons in a solid. However, the properties of this synthetic material can be changed at will. The collisional interaction between fermionic atoms in different spin states can be tuned using a Feshbach resonance and the dimensionality is controlled almost like a parameter. In the experiment we have been able to directly image the Fermi surface of the atoms in the optical lattice and to study the transition of the system from a conducting state to a band insulator. Using a Feshbach resonance we have dynamically induced a coupling between the lowest energy bands and formed molecules in the optical lattice. The unique versatility of atoms in optical lattices may allow the study of a whole catalogue of phenomena linked to solid-state physics or even to mimic the physics underlying high-temperature superconductivity.

Biography:

Prof Esslinger has been a full Professor at the department of Physics at ETH Zurich since 2001. His research areas include Quantum optics, quantum gases abdquantum many-body physics. In his early research work at the Max Plank Institute for Quantum optics, he demonstrated subrecoil laser cooling of rubidium atoms, pioneering work on laser cooling and atom optics in near-resonant optical lattices, and demonstration of a mirror for neutral atoms exploiting a surface plasmon resonance. As a research scientist at the University of Munich, he later demonstrated the quantum phase transition between a superfluid and a Mott-insulating state, made measurements of the long-range order in a Bose-Einstein condensate, and carried out pioneering work on atom lasers. His recent major scientific accomplishments include the realization of one-dimensional atomic quantum gases, pioneering work on fermionic atoms in optical lattices and molecule formation in optical lattices, and other original new experiments on quantum atom optics.

 


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