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PRESENTED BY-
SOURAV SADHUKHAN
REG. NO.-Y16273024
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
DR. HARISINGH GOUR UNIVERSITY, SAGAR
When Atoms Become Waves
Table of Contents
• What is a BEC?
• Some history
• How to make one in lab?
– Laser cooling
– Magnetic trapping
– Evaporative cooling
• What are the properties of a BEC?
• Current researches
• Applications
• A BEC is a gaseous superfluid phase formed by
atoms (mostly alkali metals) at very low
temperatures
• Predicted by S. Bose and Einstein in the 1920’s
based on statistical mechanics
• Cooling bosonic atoms to low temps causes
condensing into the lowest available quantum
state (ground orbital)
– Particles in the condensate have the same wave
function Ψ
• Bose-Einstein distribution function
F(E,T) = [exp((E-μ)/kT)-1]-1
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
• In 1924 S.N.Bose derived the famous Bose statistics.
• Einstein applied the Bose method to particles, predicting
BEC
• Steven Chu (Stanford) and colleagues won Nobel Prize in
1997 for optical molasses (discovered at Bell Labs in
1985)
• JILA group at Colorado, Boulder and at MIT successfully
creates first BEC in 1995
• Prof. Cornell,Wolfgang & Wieman win 2001 Nobel Prize
for creating BEC with Rubidium
BOSONS AND FERMIONS
FERMION BOSON
• Not all particles can have BEC. This is related to the spin of the particles.
•The spin quantum number of a particle can be an integer or a half-integer.
•Single protons, neutrons and electrons have a spin of ½. They are called fermions.
They cannot appear in the same quantum state. BEC cannot take place.
•Some atoms contain an even number of fermions. They have a total spin of whole
number. They are called bosons.
•BEC was found in alkali metals e.g. 87Rb , 23Na, 7Li because:
•They are bosons.
•Each atom is a small magnetic compass, so that a cooling
technique called magnetic cooling can work.
•The atoms have a small repulsion, so that they do not liquefy
or solidify down to a very low temperature.
Boson and Fermion Gases Below 1 mK
In these Rice University
images of atomic clouds,
those of 7Li (a boson with
4 neutrons) continue to
collapse as the
temperature is lowered.
Since identical fermions
cannot occupy the
same space (the Pauli
exclusion principle), the
atomic cloud of 6Li (a
fermion with 3 neutrons)
shows a smaller collapse.
CRITERION FOR BOSE EINSTEIN CONDENSATION
•Suppose the laser has the right colour for the photons to be absorbed
by an approaching atom, then the atom will be slowed down.
•However, the laser will not have the right colour for the photons to be
absorbed by the receding atom because of Doppler effect. Hence the
atom will not change in this case.
•When lasers are sent in from all the different directions, the atoms
can get cold very quickly.
•Radiation pressure opposes atom’s tendency to drift away from
center
•Often done with 6 laser beams
MAGNETIC TRAPPING
REFERENCE:
http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/bose.html
When exactly does this occur?
• Atom lasers
• Sensitive measurement instruments
• Improved ability to manipulate matter
waves
• Many other things we can’t even
imagine yet