Hamburg 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 24: Ultra-Cold Atoms, Ions and BEC II (with Q)

A 24.1: Fachvortrag

Donnerstag, 5. März 2009, 10:30–11:00, VMP 6 HS-C

Towards surface quantum optics with Bose-Einstein condensates in evanescent waves — Helmar Bender, Philippe Courteille, Claus Zimmermann, and •Sebastian Slama — Physikalisches Institut, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 14, D-72070 Tübingen

I will speak about the interaction of ultracold atoms with surfaces. This topic is very interesting for several reasons, for example from a fundamental point of view for the measurement of van der Waals like surface potentials and the understanding of surface effects like adsorption. From a quantum optical point of view it is interesting to coherently couple atomic matter waves with evanescent light waves for nondestructive atom detection with the prospect of QND measurements of atom numbers. Evanescent light waves are also interesting for technological reasons because by the use of surface plasmons it might be possible to produce nanostructured surface traps. In Tübingen we have made a first step towards these goals and have set up an experiment in which we bring Bose-Einstein condensates very close to the surface of a glass prism. We are able to position the atoms in a controlled way to distances from the surface below one micrometer by loading them into a combined magnetic and evanescent wave surface trap. I will present first measurements with our setup and discuss our plans for the future.