We localize Cs atoms in wavelength-sized potential wells of an optical lattice, and cool them to a three-dimensional temperature of 700 nK by adiabatic expansion. In the optical lattice we precool the atoms to ഠ1 mK. We then reduce the trapping potential in a few hundred ms, causing the atomic center-of-mass distribution to expand and the temperature to decrease by an amount which agrees with a simple 3D band theory. These are the lowest 3D kinetic temperatures ever measured.

We present a detailed experimental study of the velocity distribution of atoms cooled in an optical lattice. Our results are supported by full-quantum numerical simulations. Even though the Sisyphus effect, the responsible cooling mechanism, has been used extensively in many cold atom experiments, no detailed study of the velocity distribution has been reported previously. For the experimental as well as for the numerical investigation, it turns out that a Gaussian function is not the one that best reproduce the data for all parameters. We also fit the data to alternative functions, such as Lorentzians, Tsallis functions and double Gaussians. In particular, a double Gaussian provides a more precise fitting to our results.

We demonstrate a Brownian motor, based on cold atoms in optical lattices, where isotropic random fluctuations are rectified in order to induce controlled atomic motion in arbitrary directions. In contrast to earlier demonstrations of ratchet effects, our Brownian motor operates in potentials that are spatially and temporally symmetric, but where spatiotemporal symmetry is broken by a phase shift between the potentials and asymmetric transfer rates between them. The Brownian motor is demonstrated in three dimensions and the noise-induced drift is controllable in our system.

We report temperature measurements of atoms trapped in a three-dimensional ͑3D͒ optical lattice, a welldefined laser-cooling situation that can be treated with currently available theoretical tools. We also obtain fluorescence spectra from a 3D optical lattice, from which we obtain quantitative information about the trapping atoms, including the oscillation frequencies, spatial localization, and a temperature, which is in good agreement with our direct measurements. For comparison we study a 1D lattice using the same atom ͑cesium͒.

We present a setup where we trap two different cesium hyperfine ground states in two different near-resonant optical lattices with identical topographies. We demonstrate that we can change the relative spatial phase between the lattices and we measure the equilibrium temperature as a function of the relative spatial phase. This provides a topographical chart of the optical potential. We also determine the rate at which atoms are transferred between the lattices and show that the setup is a promising candidate for implementing coherent quantum state manipulation.

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International audienceWe present a versatile, high-brightness, guided-wave source of polarization entangled photons, emitted at a telecom wavelength. Photon-pairs are generated using an integrated type-0 nonlinear waveguide, and subsequently prepared in a polarization entangled state via a stabilized fiber interferometer. We show that the single photon emission wavelength can be tuned over more than 50 nm, whereas the single photon spectral bandwidth can be chosen at will over more than five orders of magnitude (from 25 MHz to 4 THz). Moreover, by performing entanglement analysis, we demonstrate a high degree of control of the quantum state via the violation of the Bell inequalities by more than 40 standard deviations. This makes this scheme suitable for a wide range of quantum optics experiments, ranging from fundamental research to quantum information applications. We report on details of the setup, as well as on the characterization of all included components, previously outlined in Kaiser et al. (Laser Phys. Lett. 10 (2013) 045202)

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