Cooperative Scattering of Light in cold atomic clouds

Ana Cipris, CNRS ( WP3)

Ana will develop a magneto-optical trap (MOT) with a very large number of atoms (> 1011) necessary for dilute clouds (densities below 1012 atoms/cm3 ) with optical thickness (above 200 on resonance). This will make use of high power lasers and careful control of the timing sequence of laser frequencies and intensities. Speckle fields will introduce disorder of resonances due to inhomogeneous light shifts. The collective decay (Dicke subradiance) is monitored by a fast single-photon detector over many realizations requiring stability over days.

Objectives: 1. Compare prediction based on mesoscopic approaches (Anderson localization) to cooperative scattering (Dicke super and subradiance). 2. Observation of subradiance in cold atoms. 3. Study cooperative effects on forces acting on the atoms in the multiple scattering limit. 4. Numerical simulations of coupled dipoles with short and long range coupling
Expected Results: 1. Observation of subradiance 2. Numerical predictions for scaling laws of coupled dipoles 3. Comparison between Dicke like cooperative scattering coherent multiple scattering
Secondments: 1. Toptica,  2. IFSC, 3. UWIS,  4. UMIL

PhD thesis
Future career

Ana’s Outreach and biography page