Enrico Tesio

Spontaneous optomechanical pattern formation in cold atoms

Transverse pattern formation in an optical cavity containing a cloud of cold two-level atoms is discussed. We show that density modulation becomes the dominant mechanism as the atomic temperature is reduced. Indeed, for low but easily achievable temperatures the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms can be neglected, and the system is well described by treating them as linear dielectric particles. A linear stability analysis predicts the instability threshold and the spatial scale of the emergent pattern. Numerical simulations in two transverse dimensions confirm the instability and predict the spontaneous formation of honeycomb and hexagonal density structures, respectively, for the blue and red detuned cases.

Dissipative solitons in the coupled dynamics of light and cold atoms

We investigate the coupled dynamics of light and cold atoms in a unidirectional ring cavity, in the regime of low saturation and linear single-atom response. As the dispersive opto-mechanical coupling between light and the motional degrees of freedom of the atoms makes the dynamics nonlinear, we find that localized, nonlinearity-sustained and bistable structures can be encoded in the atomic density by means of appropriate control beams.

Self-organization in cold atomic gases: a synchronization perspective

We study non-equilibrium spatial self-organization in cold atomic gases, where long-range spatial order spontaneously emerges from fluctuations in the plane transverse to the propagation axis of a single optical beam. The self-organization process can be interpreted as a synchronization transition in a fully connected network of fictitious oscillators, and described in terms of the Kuramoto model.

OPTIMIZED QUBIT PHASE ESTIMATION IN NOISY QUANTUM CHANNELS

We address the estimation of phase-shifts for qubit systems in the presence of noise. Different sources of noise are considered including bit flip, bit-phase flip and phase flip. We derive the ultimate quantum limits to precision of estimation by evaluating the analytical expressions of the quantum Fisher information and assess performances of feasible measurements by evaluating the Fisher information for realistic spin-like measurements. We also propose an experimental scheme to test our results.

Hexagonal self-structuring due to optomechanical nonlinearities in cold atomic gases

We demonstrate an optomechanical instability in a sample of cold atoms driven by a single laser beam in presence of a feedback mirror. Hexagonal light filaments propagate in atom-depleted tubes forming a honeycomb lattice.

Spontaneous opto-mechanical structures in cold atomic gases

We theoretically, numerically and experimentally investigate spontaneous transverse instabilities in cold atomic gases, arising from the action of dispersive light forces. Previous research focused on pattern-forming instabilities in hot gases where optical nonlinearities arise from the internal structure of the atoms and spatio-temporal structures are encoded in the populations and coherences of the medium. Dipole forces acting on the center-of-mass of laser-cooled atoms, being dependent on gradients of the optical intensity, are also nonlinear in nature: previous studies focused, for instance, on beam filamentation. Here we investigate the situation where a positive feedback loop is present in the system leading to a pattern-forming instability. We stress that the resulting spatial structures are encoded also in the spatial density distribution, effectively leading to the self-assembly of an optical atomic lattice.

Transverse self-organization in cold atoms due to opto-mechanical coupling

Summary form only given. Spontaneous optical pattern formation occurs in a variety of nonlinear systems [1], including hot atomic vapors [2]. On the other hand, the spatial self-organization of atomic ensembles due to opto-mechanical coupling has received a lot of interest in recent years [3].We report on the observation of transverse self-organization of a cold atomic cloud (issued from a magnetooptical trap) under the action of a single pump laser beam. Two symmetries (translation and rotation) in the plane orthogonal to the beam propagation direction are spontaneously broken. We use a simple optical feedback scheme [4], where the transmitted pump beam is retro-reflected to the atoms by a high-reflectivity mirror located at a distance d behind the cloud. This feedback loop transforms phase fluctuations of the transmitted wave into intensity fluctuations, which then react on the atomic medium. If the feedback is positive, a transverse instability can develop leading to the spontaneous apparition of patterns in the transmitted pump intensity profile, as shown in the figure below (left).Using a weak probe beam sent a few tens of μs after the e,tinction of the pump, we demonstrate that the instability also results in a transverse spatial ordering of the atomic medium as shown in the right image. The cold atoms thus e,perience strong spatial bunching due to the dipole force associated to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution. We identified two different instability regimes. For short pump durations (- 1 μs), high pump intensity and cloud optical density, the instability relies on the Kerr effect (electronic nonlinearity). For longer pump durations (- 100 μs), the instability is driven by the opto-mechanical effect, resulting in lower intensity and optical density thresholds than for the electronic nonlinearity. These observations are well reproduced by a theoretical model including the coupled dynamics of the light field and the atomic e,ternal degrees of freedom.

Optomechanical self-organization in cold atomic gases

We discuss the formation of optomechanical structures from the interaction between linear dielectric scatterers and a light field via dipole forces without the need for optical nonlinearities. The experiment uses a high density sample of Rb atoms in a single mirror feedback geometry. We observe hexagonal structures in the light field and a complementary honeycomb pattern in the atomic density. Different theoretical approaches are discussed assuming either viscous damping of the atomic velocity or not. The interplay between electronic and optomechanical nonlinearities is analyzed. A prediction for dissipative light - matter density solitons is given. The investigations demonstrate novel prospects for the manipulation of matter in a pattern forming system in which quantum effects should be accessible.