Cavity atom optics and the `free atom laser'

Abstract

The trap environment in which Bose-Einstein condensates are generated and/or stored strongly influences the way they interact with light. The situation is analogous to cavity QED in quantum optics, except that in the present case, one tailors the matter-wave mode density rather than the density of modes of the optical field. Just as in QED, for short times, the atoms do not sense the trap and propagate as in free space. After times long enough that recoiling atoms can probe the trap environment, however, the way condensates and light fields are mutually influenced differs significantly from the free-space situation. We use as an example the condensate collective atomic recoil laser, which is the atomic matter-wave analog of the free-electron laser.Comment: To be published in a special edition of Optics Communications in honor of the 60th birthday of Marlan Scull

Stability and entanglement in optical-atomic amplification of trapped atoms: The role of atomic collisions

“…This paper deals with the extension of the model of atom-optical parametric amplifier considered in Refs. [20,23] by including collisions between atoms. A study of the changes due collisions on the thresholds of exponential instability as well as in growth rate of the fields amplitudes is presented.…”

“…In Ref. [20], the trap environment effects on the Condensate Collective Atomic-Recoil Laser (CARL) [21,22] was considered by expanding the matterwave field in the trap matter-wave modes. Such a situation was called Cavity Atom Optics (CAO), in analogy with the Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (CQE) where the spontaneous emission is modified by the presence of the cavity.…”

“…Such a situation was called Cavity Atom Optics (CAO), in analogy with the Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (CQE) where the spontaneous emission is modified by the presence of the cavity. The model obtained presents interesting properties such as two regimes of exponential instability [20] and statistical properties that depend on intensity and phase of the optical field [23]. However, neither atomic collisions was taken into account nor a detailed study of the degree of entanglement between atomic and optical fields was done.…”

Trap environment effects over quantum statistics and atom-photon correlations in the collective atomic-recoil laser

“…Such a situation was called Cavity Atom Optics (CAO), in analogy with the Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (CQE) where the spontaneous emission is modified by the presence of the cavity. The dynamics of this model was compared [7] with its counterpart free space model [5] where the matter wave field was expanded in plane waves. It was found that in the CAO regime the atomic and optical fields intensities present two regimes of exponential instability.…”

“…In Ref. [7], the trap environment effect on the Condensate Collective Atomic-Recoil Laser (CARL) [8] was included by expanding the matter-wave field in the trap matter-wave modes. Such a situation was called Cavity Atom Optics (CAO), in analogy with the Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics (CQE) where the spontaneous emission is modified by the presence of the cavity.…”