Micah Boyd

Probing Interactions Between Ultracold Fermions

At ultracold temperatures, the Pauli exclusion principle suppresses collisions between identical fermions. This has motivated the development of atomic clocks with fermionic isotopes. However, by probing an optical clock transition with thousands of lattice-confined, ultracold fermionic strontium atoms, we observed density-dependent collisional frequency shifts. These collision effects were measured systematically and are supported by a theoretical description attributing them to inhomogeneities in the probe excitation process that render the atoms distinguishable. This work also yields insights for zeroing the clock density shift.

Imaging the Mott Insulator Shells by Using Atomic Clock Shifts

Microwave spectroscopy was used to probe the superfluid–Mott insulator transition of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a three-dimensional optical lattice. By using density-dependent transition frequency shifts, we were able to spectroscopically distinguish sites with different occupation numbers and to directly image sites with occupation numbers from one to five, revealing the shell structure of the Mott insulator phase. We used this spectroscopy to determine the onsite interaction and lifetime for individual shells.

Photon Recoil Momentum in Dispersive Media

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 determined with a two-pulse light grating interferometer using near-resonant laser light. The results show that the recoil momentum of atoms caused by the absorption of a photon is n variant Plancks k, where n is the index of refraction of the gas and k is the vacuum wave vector of the photon. This systematic effect must be accounted for in high-precision atom interferometry with light gratings.

Continuous and Pulsed Quantum Zeno Effect

Continuous and pulsed quantum Zeno effects were observed using a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. Oscillations between two ground hyperfine states of a magnetically trapped condensate, externally driven at a transition rate omega(R), were suppressed by destructively measuring the population in one of the states with resonant light. The suppression of the transition rate in the two-level system was quantified for pulsed measurements with a time interval deltat between pulses and continuous measurements with a scattering rate gamma. We observe that the continuous measurements exhibit the same suppression in the transition rate as the pulsed measurements when gammadeltat=3.60(0.43), in agreement with the predicted value of 4. Increasing the measurement rate suppressed the transition rate down to 0.005 omega(R).

Large atom number Bose-Einstein condensate machines

We describe experimental setups for producing large Bose-Einstein condensates of Na23 and Rb87. In both, a high-flux thermal atomic beam is decelerated by a Zeeman slower and is then captured and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. The atoms are then transferred into a cloverleaf-style Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and cooled to quantum degeneracy with radio-frequency-induced forced evaporation. Typical condensates contain 20×106 atoms. We discuss the similarities and differences between the techniques used for producing large Rb87 and Na23 condensates in the context of nearly identical setups.

Raman amplification of matter waves

We demonstrate a Raman amplifier for matter waves, where the amplified atoms and the gain medium are in two different hyperfine states. This amplifier is based on a form of superradiance that arises from self-stimulated Raman scattering in a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Atom trapping with a thin magnetic film

We have created a {sup 87}Rb Bose-Einstein condensate in a magnetic trapping potential produced by a hard disk platter written with a periodic pattern. Cold atoms were loaded from an optical dipole trap and then cooled to Bose-Einstein condensation on the surface with radio-frequency evaporation. Fragmentation of the atomic cloud due to imperfections in the magnetic structure was observed at distances closer than 40 {mu}m from the surface. Attempts to use the disk as an atom mirror showed dispersive effects after reflection.

Quantum Metrology with Lattice-confined Ultracold SR Atoms

Quantum state engineering of ultracold matter and precise control of optical fields have together allowed accurate measurement of light-matter interactions for applications in precision tests of fundamental physics. State-of-the-art lasers maintain optical phase coherence over one second. Optical frequency combs distribute this optical phase coherence across the entire visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, leading to the direct visualization and measurement of light ripples. At the same time, ultracold atoms confined in an optical lattice with zero differential ac Stark shift between two clock states allow us to minimize quantum decoherence while strengthening the clock signal. For Sr, we achieve a resonance quality factor >2.4 x 10 on the S0 – P0 doubly forbidden clock transition at 698 nm [1]. The uncertainty of this new clock has reached 1 x 10 and its instability approaches 1 x 10 at 1 s [2]. These developments represent a remarkable convergence of ultracold atoms, laser stabilization, and ultrafast science. Further improvements are still tantalizing, with quantum measurement and precision metrology combining forces to explore the next frontier.

Sr Optical Clock with High Stability and Accuracy

We report on our recent evaluations of stability and accuracy of the JILA Sr optical lattice clock. We discuss precision tools for the lattice clock, including a stabilized clock laser with sub-Hz linewidth, fs-comb based technology allowing accurate clock comparison in both the microwave and optical domains, and clock transfer over optical fiber in an urban environment. High resolution spectroscopy (Q > 2 × 10) of lattice-confined, spin-polarized strontium atoms is used for both a high-performance optical clock and atomic structure measurement. Using a Ca optical standard for comparison, the overall systematic uncertainty of the Sr clock is reduced to < 2 × 10.

Experiments with a science-chamber apparatus for rubidium BEC

Summary form only given. We report on experiments with a new apparatus for BEC of rubidium, including the transport and manipulation of condensates in a science chamber using optical tweezers, and a study of superradiant scattering in the short-pulse regime.