Complex potentials and collisional modification in cold atoms using electro-magnetically induced transparency

这笔赠款启动了一系列实验和一种理论方法，以开发操纵和控制超冷原子气体的新方法。处理超冷气体的方法现在已被公认为重要的工具，其应用范围从传感器的开发到模型的实现。凝聚态物质系统。因此，重要的是要开发控制这种气体中颗粒运动的新方法，以便促进在这些领域取得进一步的令人振奋的进展。这个联合实验-理论计划的目的是创造各种新的技术来操纵超冷原子的样品。实现这一点的主要方式之一是通过控制原子之间的碰撞。当原子被允许与外部电场或磁场相互作用时，这些原子间碰撞的特征可以显著改变。这个项目将使用激光产生的电磁场，通过所谓的费什巴赫共振来促进这些碰撞的变化。尽管这一想法已经在之前的实验中实现，但在那项工作中，如果不显著加热冷原子，很难产生碰撞强度的巨大变化。在这里，使用一种名为电磁感应透明(EIT)的技术将大大减少这种加热。更大的碰撞相互作用和对发生相互作用的位置的精确控制将允许实现新型的原子衍射，从而实现原子光学。教育和研究将通过一个项目整合，在该项目中，本科生在俄克拉荷马州立大学(OSU)的项目中发挥关键作用。这些学生将获得使用尖端技术和理论方法进行研究的经验。该项目是培养下一代科学家和工程师的理想场所。其他教育好处将来自一项安排，即每年有一名研究生长期访问比尔·菲利普斯博士和他在国家标准与技术研究所(NIST)的同事的激光冷却和捕获小组。这将为学生提供在该领域世界领先的实验室之一的研究经验。此外，这一联系将进一步促进俄亥俄州立大学和国家科学技术研究所的小组之间的合作，并将有助于为该项目招收顶尖研究生。为了确保结果的广泛传播和对该计划的普遍认识，将使用当地媒体和团体，如物理学生协会。科学上更广泛的影响主要涉及正在研究的系统可能用于量子信息方案和使用原子干涉计量学实现的传感器。

This grant initiates a set of experiments and a theoretical approach to develop new ways of manipulating and control ultracold atomic gases. Methods for manipulating ultra-cold gasses are now well established as important tools, with applications ranging from the development of sensors to the realization of ?model? condensed matter systems. Therefore, it is important that new ways of controlling the motion of particles in such gases be developed in order to facilitate further exciting advances in these areas. The aim of this joint experimental-theoretical program is the creation of a variety of novel techniques for manipulating samples of ultra-cold atoms. One of the main ways in which this will be achieved is through the control of collisions between atoms. The characteristics of these inter-atomic collisions can be significantly altered when the atoms are allowed to interact with external electric or magnetic fields. This project will use the electro-magnetic fields generated by laser light to facilitate changes in these collisions through what are known as a Feshbach resonances. Although this idea has been implemented in previous experiments, in that work it was difficult to produce large changes in the collision strength without significantly heating the cold atoms. Here this heating will be greatly reduced using a technique called electro-magnetically induced transparency (EIT). The larger collisional interactions and the precise control over the location where the interactions take place will allow the realization of new types of atomic diffraction and hence atom optics.Education and research will be integrated via a program in which undergraduate students play a critical role in carrying out important elements of the project at Oklahoma State University (OSU). These students will gain experience in research using cutting edge technologies and theoretical methods. The project is an ideal training ground for the next generation of scientists and engineers. Other educational benefits will be derived from an arrangement in which one graduate student per year undertakes an extended visit in the laser cooling and trapping group of Dr. Bill Phillips and his co-workers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This will provide students with research experience in one of the world's leading laboratories in this field. In addition, this link will further the collaboration between the groups at OSU and NIST and will help to recruit top level graduate students to the project. To ensure a broad dissemination of the results and awareness of the program in general, local media and groups such as the Society of Physics Students will be used. The scientific broader impact relate chiefly to the possible use of the systems under study in quantum information schemes and sensors realized using atom interferometry.