Porteur de projet :

Bertrand Georgeot ()
LPT (Cohérence Quantique)

Laboratoires / Groupes / Equipes partenaires :

LCAR (Atomes Froids)

LPT (Physique Statistique)

Années (début–fin) : 2012 - 2015

Abstract

The project ENCOQUAM combines the expertise of an experimental team from the “Laboratoire Collisions, Agrégats, Réactivité” (LCAR) and a theoretical group from the “Laboratoire de Physique Théorique” (LPT) in order to explore the physics of atom lasers, which are coherent guided matter waves. The project will be based on the results of a very recent collaboration between the two teams, and will achieve new experiments to display new quantum complex phenomena, engineer complex wave systems. This project will implement several important models of quantum physics in a controlled environment (''quantum simulators'')

The project has a theoretical part and a numerical part. It will use the expertise of both teams to explore the physics of guided matter waves interacting with complex potentials, especially in a context similar to the experimental devices. This will guide the experimental group in the preparation of experiments, interprete the obtained results, and suggest new experiments. Experimentally, the guided atom laser is created by spilling progressively and coherently atoms from a trapped BEC into an optical guide. Furthermore, it is possible to modify locally the confinement ``tube'' in which atoms are moving using light fields tailored and well-controlled. The experiment uses this possibility to realize a scattering experiment of matter wave on a potential that can be engineered in different ways. Many physical effects can be studied in detail by varying the experimental parameters. The project is structured around the control of quantum matter waves, enabling to observe complex quantum effects, then to engineer and control systems in order to reach specific regimes, and finally to reach the possibility of implementing specific models, in order to use our system as a true quantum simulator.

The project concerns fundamental research; however, the achievement of the objectives of ENCOQUAM could lead to quantum simulators of various complex quantum phenomena, as well as to establish the basis for a guided atom optics as versatile and flexible as the usual quantum optics. This has a huge potential for applications, in view of the manifold applications of optics.