Creation of an all-optical Bose-Einstein condensate

Amy Van Newkirk, L. Suzanne Leslie, Azure Hansen +1 more

Michael Chapman

Nir Bar‐Gill, D. D. Bhaktavatsala Rao, Gershon Kurizki

We show, using an exactly solvable model, that nonlinear dynamics is induced in a double-well Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by collisions with a thermal reservoir. This dynamics can facilitate the creation of phase or number squeezing and, at longer times, the creation of macroscopic nonclassical superposition states. Enhancement of these effects is possible by loading the reservoir atoms into an optical lattice.

Antoine Browaeys, J. V. Porto, S P. Peil +3 more

Wolfgang Ketterle

The possibility of creating optical fields with many photons in a single mode of a resonator was realized with the creation of the laser in 1960. The possibility of creating a matter-wave field with many atoms in a single mode of an atom trap—the atomic equivalent of an optical resonator—was realized with the achievement of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) in 1995.

Filip Floegel