Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 44: Ultrakalte Atome (Manipulation und Detektion)

Q 44.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 21, 2007, 15:15–15:30, 5D

Electron Microscopy With Ultracold Quantum Gases — •Tatjana Gericke, Peter Würtz, Daniel Reitz, Nils Hommerstad, and Herwig Ott — Institut für Physik, Universtität Mainz; 55099 Mainz, Germany

Since the first observation of Bose-Einstein condensation, ultracold atoms have proven to be an interesting system to study fundamental quantum effects in many-body systems. Most of the experiments use absorption imaging to extract information from the system and are therefore restricted to the fundamental limitation of this technique: the best spatial resolution that can be achieved is comparable to the wavelength of the absorption laser. Since the average atomic distance in quantum gases is between 100 nm and 500 nm a better spatial resolution is highly desirable. In order to achieve this we are developing a new imaging technique based on scanning electron microscopy: atoms inside the atomic cloud are ionized by the focussed electron beam and subsequently detected with high efficiency on an ion detector. Our electron microscope is fully UHV compatible and has a resolution of better than 50 nm. The ⁸⁷Rb atoms are cooled with a six-beam 3D-MOT which is loaded from a 2D-MOT. Subsequently, the atoms are transferred in a CO₂-dipole trap. The current state of the experiment is presented.