Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 60: Ultracold Atoms: Trapping and Cooling II (with A)

Q 60.4: Talk

Thursday, March 26, 2015, 15:15–15:30, P/H2

Mechanical and electronic energy eigenstates of neutral Rb atoms in deep optical lattices — •Andreas Neuzner, Matthias Körber, Olivier Morin, Stephan Ritter, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, 85748 Garching

Optical lattices allow for tight three-dimensional confinement of neutral atoms in quasi-harmonic potentials and have become a standard tool in experimental quantum optics. Applications range from fundamental topics like metrology to applications in quantum communication and quantum information processing. In this talk we present an experimental characterization of the motional and internal energy eigenstates of optically trapped ⁸⁷Rb atoms. We implement different spectroscopy techniques based on non-destructive hyperfine state detection using an optical cavity. Applying this technique, we observe and explain a series of effects like the decoupling of the hyperfine spin due to a tensor lightshift and mechanical effects associated with a small non-orthogonality of the lattice axes. The observed effects are generally of high experimental relevance. Furthermore, we succeed to exploit the latter for optical cooling of a single atom into the two-dimensional mechanical groundstate in an environment with restricted optical access.