Objective
The pursuit of this program is to continue the recent work on a advanced and unique setup of VSCP trapped He* atoms*) and to extend the experiment to the study of first and higher order atomic interference. Here, pushing the actual experiment towards the highest possible density of trapped atoms is the central purpose of this proposal. Within this frame the application of new technologies for trapping (dark state traps or spin-vortex traps) as well as the investigation of loss mechanisms (Penning collisions) will cover more than one year. In the second half of the program the new set-up is expected to achieve densities large enough to provide a brilliant source for a cold-atom interferometer to study atomic coherence**) or to enable Hanbury-Brown Twiss experiments***) to search for quantum statistical effects.
*) VSCP-trapped: Velocity Selective Coherent Population trapped **) first order interference **) second order interference
Fig. 1: atom interferometer Fig.2 Hanbury-8rown Twiss experiment (first order interference) (second order interference)
Funding Scheme
RGI - Research grants (individual fellowships)
Coordinator
75231 Paris
France