Abdulwahhab, NA;
Abdulwahhab, N;
(2015)
Transport of cold atoms in laser fields.
Doctoral thesis , University College London.
Abstract
This thesis describes three experiments with cold rubidium atoms. The first experiment implements a rocking ratchet with cold atoms in driven dissipative optical lattices, and explores a fundamental feature of ratchets: current reversals. It precisely investigates current reversals as observed by varying the driving frequency. It is found that this kind of current reversal in the frequency domain is determined by dissipation-induced symmetry breaking. The second experiment explores vibrational mechanics for a system of cold atoms in an optical lattice. A high frequency strong driving field was applied in order to renormalise the optical potential. It was observed that the amplitude of the potential is indeed renormalised and can be controlled by the high frequency driving field. This is detected by two methods: via the study of the diffusion properties and via the observation of the directed transport. The final experiment is the realisation and characterisation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium atoms.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Transport of cold atoms in laser fields |
| Event: | University College London |
| Keywords: | Laser cooling, Brownian motors, Rocking ratchet, Driven ratchet, Vibrational mechanics, Dissipative optical lattice, Current reversal |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1460610 |
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