⁸⁷Rubidium Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
Author(s)
Campbell, Gretchen K. (Gretchen Kathleen)
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Alternative title
⁸⁷Rb Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices
Other Contributors
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.
Advisor
Wolfgang Ketterle and David E. Pritchard.
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Bose-Einstein condensates in optical lattices have proven to be a powerful tool for studying a wide variety of physics. In this thesis a series of experiments using optical lattices to manipulate 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensates are described. A systematic shift of the photon recoil momentum due to the index of refraction of a dilute gas of atoms has been observed. The recoil frequency was measured interferometrically using a two-pulse Ramsey interferometer. The two pulses were created using a one dimensional optical lattice. By measuring the resulting frequency as a function of the lattice detuning from the atomic resonance, we found a distinctive dispersive shape for the recoil frequency that fit the recoil momentum as n,.hk. A one-dimensional optical lattice was used to modify the dispersion relation of the condensate in order to demonstrate the matter-wave analogue of Optical Parametric Generation (OPG) and Amplification (OPA) of photons. A condensate was loaded into a moving optical lattice with adjustable quasimomentum k0. As the value for k0o was varied, we observed elastic scattering into two distinct final momentum states k1 and k2. (cont.) When a small fraction of atoms was first transferred to k1 before ramping on the lattice, we observed the amplification of scattered atoms into k1 and k2. The superfluid-Mott Insulator transition was studied using microwave spectroscopy in a deep three-dimensional optical lattice. Using the density dependent clock shift we were able to spectroscopically distinguish sites with different occupation numbers, and to directly image sites with occupation number from 1 to 5, revealing the shell structure of the Mott Insulator phase.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, February 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-142).
Date issued
2007Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Keywords
Physics.