Optical Feshbach Resonances and Solitons in Quantum Degenerate Strontium

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Many technological marvels in modern society rely upon our ability tounderstand and control the properties of materials on a microscopiclevel, such as tuning the electrical conductivity in semiconductors thatare used to make computer chips. In the last decade, there have beengreat advances in the creation and study of ultracold clouds of gaseousatoms, which are cooled by lasers to temperatures around a millionth ofa degree above absolute zero. Ultracold atoms made in this way have theamazing property that their interactions can be arbitrarily controlled,which opens the possibility of using them to make designer materials ortest models of complex and important phenomena such as high temperaturesuperconductivity. The tool currently used to control these interactionsis the application of a strong magnetic field, but magnetic fields havedisadvantages; it is difficult to quickly change large magnetic fieldsor vary fields on small length scales. Prof. Killian's research group atRice University in Houston, Texas will develop new techniques formanipulating atom-atom interactions using lasers, which are much moreflexible and may open the way to new applications such as laser beamsmade of atoms instead of light, or the ability to make new states of matter.This work will also involve at least two graduate students and oneundergraduate student, and it will train them for high-technologycareers in optics or materials. The ultracold atomic physics laboratoryat Rice also has a partnership with the Houston campus of Yes Prep HighSchool, a highly successful charter school targeting disadvantagedyouth. This collaboration brings high school students into thelaboratory for term-time visits and summer camps, and introduces them tothe excitement of science at the frontiers of discovery in hopes ofinspiring them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathcareers. Basic atomic physics experiments such as these are laying thescientific and human resources foundation today for the technologicalmarvels of tomorrow.