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

这笔拨款启动了一系列实验和理论方法，以开发操纵和控制超冷原子气体的新方法。操纵超冷气体的方法现在已经成为重要的工具，其应用范围从传感器的开发到模型的实现。凝聚态系统。因此，为了促进这些领域进一步令人兴奋的进展，开发控制这些气体中粒子运动的新方法是很重要的。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。实现这一目标的主要方法之一是通过控制原子间的碰撞。当允许原子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。这个项目将利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。虽然这个想法已经在以前的实验中实现了，但在那项工作中，很难在不显著加热冷原子的情况下产生碰撞强度的大变化。在这里，使用一种称为电磁感应透明（EIT）的技术，这种加热将大大减少。更大的碰撞相互作用和对相互作用发生位置的精确控制将使新型原子衍射和原子光学得以实现。教育和研究将通过一个项目进行整合，其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。这个项目是培养下一代科学家和工程师的理想场所。其他教育方面的好处将来自于一项安排，即每年有一名研究生在国家标准与技术研究所（NIST）的比尔·菲利普斯博士及其同事的激光冷却和诱捕小组中进行长期访问。这将为学生提供在该领域的世界领先实验室之一的研究经验。此外，这种联系将进一步促进俄勒冈州立大学和NIST的小组之间的合作，并将有助于为该项目招募顶级研究生。为了确保结果的广泛传播和对项目的普遍认识，将利用当地媒体和物理学生协会等团体。科学上的广泛影响主要涉及正在研究的系统在量子信息方案和使用原子干涉测量实现的传感器中的可能使用。

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.