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arXiv:1005.1922 · Physical Review Letters

Enhanced and Reduced Atom Number Fluctuations in a BEC Splitter

Kenneth Maussang, G. Edward Marti, T. Schneider, Philipp Treutlein, Yun Li, Alice Sinatra, Romain Long, Jérôme Estève, Jakob Reichel

Published Aug 19, 2010• 91 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We measure atom number statistics after splitting a gas of ultracold 87Rb atoms in a purely magnetic double-well potential created on an atom chip. Well below the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation Tc, we observe reduced fluctuations down to -4.9 dB below the atom shot noise level. Fluctuations rise to more than +3.8 dB close to Tc, before reaching the shot noise level for higher temperatures. We use two-mode and classical field simulations to model these results. This allows us to confirm that the supershot noise fluctuations directly originate from quantum statistics.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.105.080403

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We measure atom number statistics after splitting a gas of ultracold 87Rb atoms in a purely magnetic double-well potential created on an atom chip. Well below the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation Tc, we observe reduced fluctuations down to -4.9 dB below the atom shot noise level. Fluctuations rise to more than +3.8 dB close to Tc, before reaching the shot noise level for higher temperatures. We use two-mode and classical field simulations to model these results. This allows us to confirm that the supershot noise fluctuations directly originate from quantum statistics.
Fluctuations are a key property of both classical and quantum systems. While the fluctuations are well understood for many quantum systems at zero temperature, the case of an interacting quantum system at finite temperature still poses numerous challenges. Despite intense theoretical investigations of atom number fluctuations in Bose-Einstein condensates, their amplitude in experimentally relevant interacting systems is still not fully understood. Moreover, technical limitations have prevented their experimental investigation to date. Here we report the observation of these fluctuations. Our experiments are based on a stabilization technique, which allows for the preparation of ultracold thermal clouds at the shot noise level, thereby eliminating numerous technical noise sources. Furthermore, we make use of the correlations established by the evaporative cooling process to precisely determine the fluctuations and the sample temperature. This allows us to observe a telltale signature: the sudden increase in fluctuations of the condensate atom number close to the critical temperature.
Abstract The investigation of atom number fluctuations in quantum gases at finite temperatures showcases the ongoing challenges in understanding complex quantum systems. Recently, the microcanonical nature of atom number fluctuations in weakly interacting Bose–Einstein condensates was observed. This motivates an investigation of the thermal component of partially condensed Bose gases, due to the conservation of the total atom number. Here, we present a combined analysis of both components, including a comprehensive analysis of the uncertainties in the preparation and parameter extraction of partially condensed quantum gases. This enables a complementary observation of the thermal atom number fluctuations and yields and improved value of the peak BEC atom number fluctuations Δ N p , 0 2 = ( 3.7 ± 7 ) × 10 5 close to the critical temperature. This corresponds to a reduction by 41% with respect to previous analysis and corroborates the microcanonical nature of the fluctuations. The analysis of noise contributions due to the preparation and evaluation of partially condensed Bose gases is based on Monte Carlo simulations of optical density profiles. Importantly, this allows for an estimation of the technical noise contributions to the atom number and temperature, which is generally applicable in the field of ultracold atoms.
Correlations in quantum degenerate matter can be created by even weak interactions. A double well provides a simple system in which to observe this effect, since relative occupation has sub-Poissonian fluctuation when the charging energy becomes greater than the Josephson energy of the superfluid. I will discuss our efforts to observe this effect directly in the number statistics of a split Bose-Einstein condensate. We have a sensitivity to standard deviation at the level of tens of atoms, giving us sub-Poissonian noise and uncertainty in our measurement of several thousand atoms. We report statistical results for various preparations and splitting sequences.
We report dispersive spin shot noise measurement of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). While dispersive probing has been used for quantum spin noise measurement of thermal and cold gases for decades, confirmative measurement of shot noise of real spin, i.e., the linear dependence of the spin variance on the number of atoms in a BEC, has been lacking. Here, we demonstrate precise spin noise measurement of a BEC of rubidium atoms at the spin shot noise level by polarization rotation using a two-color probe at optimal detunings, with power balance stabilization to suppress probe-induced excess spin noise. This work opens the possibility for the unexplored study of quantum spin fluctuations in multicomponent or spinor BECs and offers an approach to improve spin measurement precision, which is relevant to atomic spin-based sensors.
In this thesis I discuss work that has been carried out on the dynamics of a Bose Einstein condensate of Rb 87 produced near an atom chip. A Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) is a quantum state of matter where a single quantum state becomes occupied by a macroscopic number of identical Bosons. In our case this is achieved by cooling a system of trapped identical rubidium 87 atoms to its ground state. To reach temperatures of condensation we initially laser cool atoms from room temperature, before loading them into a magnetic trap. The magnetic trap is produced through a combination of uniform magnetic fields from coils outside our vacuum chamber and currents running through wires on an atom chip. The atom chip is a microfabricated device, produced by a coating a silicon chip with a thin layer of gold and etching wires into it. Together, these fields create a magnetic field minimum 120μm from the surface of the chip which can be used to confine low field seeking hyperfine states of the atom in an elongated harmonic trap. Once the atoms are confined in the magnetic trap we used force evaporative cooling out to reach the phase space densities required for Bose Einstein condensation. The BEC is used to investigate the relative dynamics between the fraction of the atoms in the condensate to those not in the condensate. Our atom chip provided a suitable environment to investigate this due to fragmentation of the magnetic potential close to the chip. Small imperfections in the wires on our atom chip mean that the trapping potential isn’t smooth. Small regions of higher trapping frequency - or fragments - are formed. Due to the small size of these fragments it is possible to find a position where a condensate can form in the fragment, and see a potential of high frequency, whereas a non-condensed atom will see a lower frequency potential. We exploit this to set the condensed fraction moving relative to the non condensed part and investigate the subsequent damping of their motion relative to each other.