Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 42: Ultrakalte Atome (Manipulation und Detektion / Quantengase)

Q 42.4: Talk

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 15:00–15:15, 1C

Bose-Einstein Condensation of Dark-State Polaritons in Atomic Vapour — •Johannes Otterbach, Razmik Unanyan, and Michael Fleischhauer — TU Kaiserslautern, Germany

We propose a mechanism for Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dark-state polaritons in an atomic vapour. Dark-state polaritons (DSPs) are created in the Raman interaction of laser fields with atoms and are the basis of phenomena such as ultra-slow, stopped, and stationary light. In contrast to exciton-polaritons they have a very long intrinsic lifetime on the order of milliseconds. Stationary DSPs created by counter-propagating Raman pump fields have a quadratic dispersion profile with a variable mass tensor. Due to the small effective mass of these quasi-particles, the corresponding condensation temperature can be 4 orders of magnitude higher than that of the atomic vapour. After introduction of stationary light dark-state polaritons we discuss their incoherent generation and thermalization and analyze conditions for their condensation. Finally potential methods for an experimental observation of the Bose-Einstein condensation will be discussed.