Page History

Overview

One direction of our research is to create systems analogous to solids in condensed matter systems by using ultracold atoms in optical lattices. Major challenges we address with our research is cooling these gases to lower temperatures and probing the new states of matter we expect to find as new energy scales become accessible. To this end, we have pioneered the methods of demagnetization cooling and Bragg scattering for ultracold atoms in optical lattices.

Another exciting direction for our research is the possibility of creating states of matter that do not exist in the traditional condensed matter context. To this end, we are exploring the control offered via state-dependent lattices to manipulate and cool different spin states in the lattice.

Spin-Dependent Lattices

Many interesting states of matter, especially magnetic ones, contain spin correlations. At low enough temperatures (an active research frontier, see below...), the super-exchange interaction is thought (an active research frontier, again...) to give rise to spin correlations. But what if we could use the tricks of atomic physics to start with a low entropy state that already had spin correlations built in? 

Bragg Scattering

Thermometry and Refridgeration

Navigate space