- Bose-Einstein condensate
- Studies of collisions
- Detection of correlated atoms
The team studies atomic cloud exhibiting quantum correlations. These correlations are measured on metastable helium samples thanks to a single atom, spatial and time-resolved detector. These correlations are due to the quantum statistics of the particles (eg Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect) and/or interactions between particles. The resulting non classical atomic sources will be used in future experiments on quantum information
Two-body correlation function of a thermal gas of He4 (boson, top curve) and He3 (fermion, bottom curve) as a function of the relative distance between the two atoms. We observe bunching for bosons and anti-bunching for fermions as predicted by their respective quantum statistics.
Sub-poissonian distribution in a spontaneous four-wave mixing experiment. The collision between two condensates produces a scattering halo of pairs of atoms with opposite velocities (a). The population difference between two symmetric zones (b, red dots in right figure) has a sub-Poissonian noise whereas for two non symmetric zones (blue dots in right figure) it is Poissonian.
Team leadres : Denis Boiron and Chris Westbrook
Other members
- Josselin Ruaudel (doc)
- Raphael Lopes (doc)
- Marie Bonneau (Postdoc)
- Alain Aspect (DR)
from left to right : J. Ruaudel, C. I. Westbrook, D. Boiron, M. Bonneau, R. Lopes
