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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 24: Poster II

Q 24.19: Poster

Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 17:00–19:00, KG I Foyer

Spin- and momentum-correlated atom pairs mediated by photon exchange and seeded by vacuum fluctuations — •Rodrigo Rosa-Medina, Fabian Finger, Nicola Reiter, Jacob Fricke, Panagiotis Christodoulou, Tobias Donner, and Tilman Esslinger — Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Engineering pairs of massive particles that are simultaneously correlated in their external and internal degrees of freedom is a major challenge, yet essential for advancing fundamental tests of physics and quantum technologies. Experiments with ultracold atoms provide a versatile platform for manipulating and detecting such correlations at a microscopic level.

In our experiment, we couple a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate of Rb-87 atoms to a high-finesse optical cavity. By leveraging the strong light-matter interactions, we engineer correlated pairs of atoms both in their internal (spin) and external (momentum) degrees of freedom through the exchange of virtual cavity photons. The measured pair statistics are compatible with pair production being seeded by vacuum fluctuations in the corresponding atomic modes. We observe a collectively enhanced formation of atom pairs and demonstrate their correlated nature by probing momentum-space noise correlations. Furthermore, we optically control the interplay between unitary and competing dissipative processes, and observe coherent pair oscillations. Our findings provide prospects for quantum-enhanced matterwave interferometry and quantum simulation experiments with correlated atoms.

Keywords: Cavity QED; Spinor BEC; Nonequilibrium Phenomena; Superradiance