Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät - Nanooptik

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Mathematisch-Naturwissen­schaft­liche Fakultät | Institut für Physik | Nanooptik | Optik/Photonik Kolloquium | Playing quantum marbles, or can we make individual atoms interfere with each other?

Playing quantum marbles, or can we make individual atoms interfere with each other?

Prof. Dieter Meschede
  • Was Optik/Photonik Kolloquium
  • Wann 02.07.2009 von 15:00 bis 16:00
  • Wo Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, Raum 109
  • iCal

Universität Bonn<br />
Germany<br />
<br />
Quantum gases confined by an optical lattices have recently received much attention as
simulators for quantum many-particle systems, and they are advertised as important
tools for quantum information science. In an alternative "bottom-up" approach small
interacting quantum systems can be created with neutral atoms which resembles a bit children playing with microscopic marbles. In this lecture I will present our recent experimental advances where we have taken atomic marbles to the full quantum regime, i.e. to the observation of atomic matter wave interferences at the single atom level. For instance, we have realized the quantum analogue of Brownian motion, the quantum walk, a concept of relevance in quantum information science. New methods to cool single atoms to the motional ground state also open the potential for the creation of degenerate quantum states at the level of few atoms only.