Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 18: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC II

Q 18.5: Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:30–11:45, BAR 106

Probing an ultracold atomic crystal with matter waves — Bryce Gadway, Daniel Pertot, Jeremy Reeves, and •Dominik Schneble — Department of Physics & Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA

We explore the scattering of matter waves from ultracold atoms held in an optical lattice. By ``shining'' a one-dimensional Bose gas onto an atomic Mott insulator (target), we observe Bragg diffraction peaks that reveal the target's crystalline structure. We find a systematic dependence of the Bragg intensity on the degree of atom localization, and recover a transition to coherent momentum and energy exchange (``Newton's cradle'') in the limit of free target atoms. Neutral-atom diffraction can serve as a novel experimental technique for probing atomic many-body systems.