Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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ISS: Intersectional Sessions
ISS 1: Micro Mechanical Oscillator 1 (Q, TT)
ISS 1.2: Talk
Monday, March 14, 2011, 10:45–11:00, HSZ 02
Optomechanical Coupling of Ultracold Atoms and a Membrane Oscillator — •Maria Korppi1,2,3, Andreas Jöckel1, Stephan Camerer2,3, David Hunger2,3, Theodor W. Hänsch2,3, and Philipp Treutlein1,2,3 — 1Universität Basel, Switzerland — 2Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany — 3Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
We report the recent results of our experiment, where we couple a single mode of a high-Q membrane-oscillator to the motion of laser-cooled atoms in an optical lattice. The optical lattice is formed by retroreflection of a laserbeam from the membrane surface. The coupling is mediated by power modulation of the lattice beam due to the vibrations of the atoms in the lattice. If the trap frequency of the atoms in the lattice is matched to the eigenfrequency of the membrane, we observe resonant energy transfer between the two systems.
In the long term, such coupling mechanism could be exploited to develop hybrid quantum systems between atoms and solid-state devices. As another intriguing perspective, a new generation of optical lattice experiment is in sight, where the mirrors creating the laser standing waves are micromechanical oscillators interacting with the atoms on a quantum level.