This grant initiates a set of experiments and a theoretical approach to develop new ways of manipulating and control ultracold atomic gases. Methods for manipulating ultra-cold gasses are now well established as important tools, with applications ranging from the development of sensors to the realization of ?model? condensed matter systems. Therefore, it is important that new ways of controlling the motion of particles in such gases be developed in order to facilitate further exciting advances in these areas. The aim of this joint experimental-theoretical program is the creation of a variety of novel techniques for manipulating samples of ultra-cold atoms. One of the main ways in which this will be achieved is through the control of collisions between atoms. The characteristics of these inter-atomic collisions can be significantly altered when the atoms are allowed to interact with external electric or magnetic fields. This project will use the electro-magnetic fields generated by laser light to facilitate changes in these collisions through what are known as a Feshbach resonances. Although this idea has been implemented in previous experiments, in that work it was difficult to produce large changes in the collision strength without significantly heating the cold atoms. Here this heating will be greatly reduced using a technique called electro-magnetically induced transparency (EIT). The larger collisional interactions and the precise control over the location where the interactions take place will allow the realization of new types of atomic diffraction and hence atom optics.
Education and research will be integrated via a program in which undergraduate students play a critical role in carrying out important elements of the project at Oklahoma State University (OSU). These students will gain experience in research using cutting edge technologies and theoretical methods. The project is an ideal training ground for the next generation of scientists and engineers. Other educational benefits will be derived from an arrangement in which one graduate student per year undertakes an extended visit in the laser cooling and trapping group of Dr. Bill Phillips and his co-workers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This will provide students with research experience in one of the world's leading laboratories in this field. In addition, this link will further the collaboration between the groups at OSU and NIST and will help to recruit top level graduate students to the project. To ensure a broad dissemination of the results and awareness of the program in general, local media and groups such as the Society of Physics Students will be used. The scientific broader impact relate chiefly to the possible use of the systems under study in quantum information schemes and sensors realized using atom interferometry.
