Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 35: Quanteneffekte: QED / Interferenz und Korrelationen I
Q 35.7: Talk
Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 15:30–15:45, VMP 6 HS-E
Pump-probe spectroscopy of two-atom entanglement in ultracold gases — •Christiane P. Koch1 and Ronnie Kosloff2 — 1Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin — 2Hebrew University, Dept. of Physical Chemistry, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Two atoms in an ultracold gas are entangled at short inter-atomic distances due to threshold effects where the potential energy of their interaction dominates the kinetic energy. The entanglement manifests itself in a distinct nodal structure of the pair density at short range. We suggest pump-probe spectroscopy to study this entanglement: A suitably chosen, short laser pulse excites part of the atomic pair density to an electronically excited state. This depletes the ground state pair density in a range of distances, creating a 'hole'. The dynamics of this non-stationary wave packet can be monitored by a time-delayed probe pulse. We find different 'hole' dynamics for coherent and incoherent initial states, corresponding, respectively, to a BEC and an ultracold thermal ensemble.