玻色—爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC)实验及其最新进展

近年来,有关玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC)的实验研究得到了快速发展,并取得了一系列重大的实验进展。本文重点介绍了玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的实验结果及其最新进展,主要包括具有正、负散射长度碱金属(7Li,23Na,41K,85Rb,87Rb和133Cs)原子BEC的实现,自旋极化1H原子、亚稳态4He原子和具有2个价电子的174Yb稀土原子BEC的实现,全光型BEC和微阱BEC乃至低维BEC的实现,甚至分子BEC和费米原子对的凝聚以及超冷BEC凝聚体的应用等。     

玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚在中国科学院上海光机所实现

文章报道了在稀薄87Rb原子气体中观测到的玻色 -爱因斯坦凝聚 (BEC)现象 .在四极矩和Ioffe组合磁阱 (QUIC)中装载了 1× 10 8个原子 ,经过 19s蒸发冷却达到了相变条件 .在高原子密度的情况下 ,文章作者观察到了BEC对探测光的衍射光环 .这时降低磁阱势垒和绝热的放开冷原子样品 ,我们拍摄到冷原子和BEC的吸收像 .根据数据拟合满足双高斯分布 ,表明发生了BEC相变 .相变温度约 2 15nK ,凝聚的原子数约为 5× 10 4 .     

从费米原子到配对超冷分子

自从1995年以来，实验物理学家已经在一系列玻色原子气系统中实现了玻色—爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC)，它们是^1H，^7Li，^23Na，^85Rb和^87Rb等等，这些玻色原子具有整数自旋量子数，与玻色原子相对应的是费米原子，它们具有半整数的自旋值，例如^40K。即使在非常接近绝对零度的低温下，费米原子气也不可能凝聚到单一量子态：每一个费米原子所     

诺贝尔奖得主Ketterle领导的小组又获重要进展

在实现了^23Na的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚（BEC）后不久，1997年Ketterle W领导的小组即以原子干涉实验证实了BEC所具有的相干性，他们将一团BEC原子云劈成两半，然后令它们在重力场中下落，每一半在下落过程中自由膨胀，并且逐步形成彼此的重叠，此时，通过吸收成像，实验者观察到了与原子密度相应的明暗相间条纹．测得的条纹间距是-15μm，这意味着，作为物质波BEC原子的德布罗意波长（水平分量）-30μm．     

超冷费米原子气中超流发生的确凿证据

最近，恰好在玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚（BEC）实现10年之后，美国麻省理工-哈佛超冷原子研究中心的Zwierlein等（由Ketterle W领导的小组）首次在超冷^6 Li费米原子气中看到了超流的确凿证据——由涡旋构成的Abrikosov晶格（这类品格，此前已经在旋转的BEC中和超导体中被观察）．这一进展被认为是继BEC之后的又一重大进展．     

玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚实现10周年

自1995年首次实现玻色一爱因斯坦凝聚（BEC）以来，相关研究发展迅速．截止到2005年6月，已实现凝聚的碱金属原子气有六种：7^Li，23^Na，41^K,85^Rb，和133^Cs．自旋极化1^H最早被遴选为BEC的对象，但因技术上的难度问题，它的凝聚迟至1998年6月，是由“BEC教父”Daniel Kleppneer领导的小组实现的．     

玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的瞬态过程

众所周知 ,玻色 -爱因斯坦凝聚 (BEC)是指成千上万的原子以稀薄气体的形式在瞬间凝聚到具有相干性的基态上 ,这种状态可以显示许多极有意义的量子效应 .当然要出现BEC状态 ,首要的条件是必须让系统处于临界点 .但长期以来科学家们却很少关注凝聚时的崩塌现象 .最近荷兰原子与分子物理研究所的J .Walraven教授及其研究组对此进行了研究 ,他们细致地观察了这个崩塌现象 ,并发现了在凝聚时出现的奇异的类似于雪茄烟状的凝聚云团 .研究组采用“激波冷却 (shockcooling)”方法来冷却原子 (即利用无线频率波使原子在 1ms内迅速冷却 ,而不是采…     

有限数目捕获原子的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚

研究了各向异性谐振子捕获势中有限数目原子的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC),结果表明：对有限数目捕获原子来说,它的BEC临界温度比热力学极限下捕获原子的BEC临界温度要低,原子间的相互作用也将提高（散射长度为负）或降低（散射长度为正）原子BEC临界温度．临界温度以下体系的比热随温度的变化行为不再是T^3/2,而近似为T³．在定域密度近似下,还研究了各向同性捕获势中原子的空间分布,对有限数目的原子来说,它的密度比势力学极限下的要小,原子间的相互作用也降低原子的空间分布密度． 关键词：     

玻色-费米气体量子简并光学偶极阱的设计

实现了将预冷却(温度约为1～2μK)的87 Rb和40 K原子装载到远红失谐的光学偶极力阱中,继而利用逐步降低光强的方法对其进行蒸发冷却,获得了87 Rb原子的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC),并用协同冷却的方法得到了40 K原子的量子简并(DFG)。实验上通过光纤传输远红失谐激光束降低了光束指向性的抖动,又利用光强反馈伺服系统抑制远红失谐激光的强度抖动,提高了获得玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚和简并费米气体的重复性和稳定性。实验上得到玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的原子数达8.48×105个,简并费米气体的原子数量约为3.34×106个。     

新世纪的第一只燕子--2001年度诺贝尔物理学奖述评

文章介绍了玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚的原理，着重讨论了2001年诺贝尔物理学奖得主：科耐尔（E.A.Cornell)、维曼（C.E.Wiemian)和凯特利（W.Ketterle)在世界上首次产生铷原子和钠原子的玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚的贡献，以及最近他们在玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚物理的研究和实现原子激射的诸多进展。并对玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚物理的发展与技术上的应用进行初步展望。     

碱性原子的玻色-爱因斯坦冷凝态与“原子激光”——2001年诺贝尔物理学奖介绍

介绍了2001年诺贝尔物理学奖“碱性原子的玻色－爱因斯坦冷凝态”的研究成果情况，论述了该领域内的物理理论和实验技术，并对其今后的发展及应用进行了简单的介绍。     

二维旋转简谐振子势的讨论

以二维旋转简谐振子势为例分析了在BEC中经常用到的旋转势,分析了哈密顿量的表达式,给出了波函数和能量本征值,并注意到了二维旋转简谐振子势与带电粒子在磁场中的情形具有相近的形式.     

Generations of dark hollow beams and their applications in laser cooling of atoms and all optical-type Bose－Einstein condensation

We report on a new experimental result to generate dark hollow beams by using a geometric optical method. We propose two new methods to produce focused and localized hollow laser beams by using π-phase plates. Using Monte-Carlo simulations, we have studied the Sisyphus cooling of alkali atoms in pyramidal hollow beam gravito-optical traps. We discuss some potential applications of the dark hollow beams in atom optics and the preparation of an all optically-cooled and optically-trapped atomic Bose－Einstein condensation (BEC). Our research shows that an ultracold atomic sample with a temperature of ～ 2μK can be obtained in the pyramidal hollow beam dipole trap and an all optical-type BEC may be realized in a far blue-detuned, hollow beam trap.     

Exciton–polariton condensation

We review, aiming at an audience of final year undergraduates, the phenomena observed in, and properties of, microcavity exciton–polariton condensates. These are condensates of mixed light and matter, consisting of superpositions of photons in semiconductor microcavities and excitons in quantum wells. Because of the imperfect confinement of the photon component, exciton–polaritons have a finite lifetime, and have to be continuously re-populated. Therefore, exciton–polariton condensates lie somewhere between equilibrium Bose–Einstein condensates and lasers. We review in particular the evidence for condensation, the coherence properties studied experimentally, and the wide variety of spatial structures either observed or predicted to exist in exciton–polariton condensates, including quantised vortices and other coherent structures. We also discuss the question of superfluidity in a non-equilibrium system, reviewing both the experimental attempts to investigate superfluidity to date, and the theoretical suggestions of how it may be further elucidated.     

Spinor Bose–Einstein condensates

An overview of the physics of spinor and dipolar Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) is given. Mean-field ground states, Bogoliubov spectra, and many-body ground and excited states of spinor BECs are discussed. Properties of spin-polarized dipolar BECs and those of spinor–dipolar BECs are reviewed. Some of the unique features of the vortices in spinor BECs such as fractional vortices and non-Abelian vortices are delineated. The symmetry of the order parameter is classified using group theory, and various topological excitations are investigated based on homotopy theory. Some of the more recent developments in a spinor BEC are discussed.     

Hysteresis in a superfluid atom circuit

We study a hysteresis phenomenon in a rotating BEC with a weak link in a quasi-one-dimensional torus by proposing a microscopic theoretical model including a dissipation bath. By analyzing the role of dissipation and the decay rates of all the energy levels, we are able to give a microscopic interpretation of hysteresis recently observed in the experiment and confirm that the hysteresis is the result of the presence of metastable state. In particular, we obtain the hysteresis loops in a quench process just as that in the experiment. We also find that the shape and size of the hysteresis loop change drastically with the strength of the link.     

Dynamics of a bistable Mott insulator to superfluid phase transition in cavity optomechanics

We study the dynamics of the many-body state of ultracold bosons trapped in a bistable optical lattice in an optomechanical resonator controlled by a time-dependent input field. We focus on the dynamics of the many-body system following discontinuous jumps of the intracavity field. We identify experimentally realizable parameters for the bistable quantum phase transition between Mott insulator and superfluid.     

Excitation picture of an interacting Bose gas

Atomic Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) can be viewed as macroscopic objects where atoms form correlated atom clusters to all orders. Therefore, the presence of a BEC makes the direct use of the cluster-expansion approach–lucrative e.g. in semiconductor quantum optics–inefficient when solving the many-body kinetics of a strongly interacting Bose. An excitation picture is introduced with a nonunitary transformation that describes the system in terms of atom clusters within the normal component alone. The nontrivial properties of this transformation are systematically studied, which yields a cluster-expansion friendly formalism for a strongly interacting Bose gas. Its connections and corrections to the standard Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov approach are discussed and the role of the order parameter and the Bogoliubov excitations are identified. The resulting interaction effects are shown to visibly modify number fluctuations of the BEC. Even when the BEC has a nearly perfect second-order coherence, the BEC number fluctuations can still resolve interaction-generated non-Poissonian fluctuations.