In recent years ultracold atomic gases have proven to be a powerful and versatile tool for studying a wide variety of physics.
Our group currently has two experiments, the Sodium atom circuits experiment and the ultracold Strontium experiment. Both experiments are located at the Joint Quantum Institute located on the UMD campus and use ultracold atomic gases to study many-body physics. The atom circuits experiment is currently focused on studying superfluidity and analogs of both superconducting electronics and cosmological physics, whereas the strontium experiment is focused on engineering and studying novel condensed matter systems.
Strontium lab achieves its first BEC!
On Friday, January 31st, the Strontium lab succesfully created a Bose-Einstein Condensate using 86Sr.
http://jqi.umd.edu/news/quantum-bit/2014/02/04/10-and-counting-jqis-ultracold-quantum-gases
JQI Fellow Gretchen Campbell receives PECASE
The 2013 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers were announced on Monday, December 23rd. JQI Fellow and NIST scientist Gretchen Campbell was among the honorees. Campbell currently runs two experiments on ultracold atoms. One currently focuses on using a toroidal shaped Bose-Einstein condensate to build atomic analogs to electron-based superconducting circuits--so-called atomtronics.
Paper Published! Wright et. al Phys. Rev. A 88, 063633 (2013)
Kevin's paper: Threshold for creating excitations in a stirred superfluid ring, has been published in Phys. Rev. A. The paper can be found here.
Paper Published! Murray et. al Phys. Rev. A 88, 053615 (2013)
Noel Murray and Mark Edwards theory paper: Probing the circulation of ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates, has been published in Phys. Rev. A. The paper can be found here.
Postdoc Joe Pechkis starts faculty position at Bryn Mawr College
Joe Pechkis who has spent the last year years working on the Strontium experiment has joined the Physics Department at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, PA as a Visiting Assistant Professor. Congratulations Joe!
JQI at DAMOP 2013
The meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (DAMOP) will take place in Quebec June 3-7, 2013. The following is a summary of the presentations being made by scientists of the Joint Quantum Institute (*).
JQI Podcast Episode 8 - Waves Matter for Studying Matter
Phil Schewe discusses how matter, such as atoms and electrons, can display wave-like properties. Steve Rolston describes early scattering experiments. Gretchen Campbell talks about matter waves in the context of modern Bose-Einstein condensate experiments.
JQI Papers at March APS
Roughly 40 papers are being given by speakers from the Joint Quantum Institute (*). Here are summaries of a few of them.
Theory of Positronium BEC’s (future Gamma Laser)
Yi-Hsieh Wang, paper J40.9
Phase Slips paper highlighted by Physics World
An article about our recent PRL has been published in Physics World.