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PhD Positions
See also our poster (link)
As a PhD student on this project, you would take part in the construction of our second BEC machine, which will be dedicated to the understanding of coherence in BECs: How does it form? How do phase-fluctuation die down? What causes phase fluctuations? Next to the physics of Bose-Einstein Condensation you will learn a lot about various experimental techniques: diode lasers, fiber-optics, vacuum technology, and computer control.
Does this sound a little too challenging? Don't worry, we will help you, and you will go to summer schools such as Les Houches and Innsbruck. Later, once you mastered your part of the project, you will even get the chance to present some of your work at conferences and/or work-shops.
We are open to people from different backgrounds. So, even if you do not have experience in the subject, you might still be a very welcome addition to the group! So, if you are interested... please contact us! We strongly encourage also female physicists to apply.
Please, feel also free to contact anyone in our team to get a feel, what it is like to work in the Cretan Matter-Waves Group or directly Wolf von Klitzing.
I) Matter-Wave Interferometry
Matter-wave interferometry is probably one of the most interesting applications of Bose-Einstein Condensates. For the first time, we have a bright source of ultra-cold atoms at our hands. The missing link has been, so far, the ability to guide the atoms coherently over macroscopic distances. We believe that we have found a way to do so using our Time-Averaged Adiabatic Potentials, which will enable us to make perfect waveguides. Crucially, we can even make ring-shaped traps of variable radius. For more information, please look here or for a demonstration of what TAAPs can do here.
We have achieved BEC in August 2010 and shortly after this we demonstrated our first TAAP traps. We are now working on the implementation of the ring trap and will soon turn to matter-wave interferometry.
Further Reading:
"Time-Averaged Adiabatic Potentials: Versatile traps and waveguides for ultracold quantum gases"
Igor Lesanovsky and Wolf von Klitzing
Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 083001 (2007) (link)
(cond-mat/0612213 abs(v1), more recent version: pdf(v2))
II) The Rise and Fall of a Macroscopic Quantum State
Bose-Einstein Condensates are amongst the best-controlled macroscopic quantum states. Having been predicted by Einstein already in 1924, it took until 1995 for them to be realized experimentally. They are now model systems for our understanding of questions ranging from superfluid quantum vortices to solid-state problems such as the Mot-insulator state.
Much research has been done since the original demonstration of BEC, however, the question of how the macroscopic quantum state arises from a random collection of individual atoms is still wide open. Especially the dynamic aspects of the formation process promise to be of great interest. Moreover, the rise of coherence in a ‘noisy’ condensate is almost virgin territory.
The construction of this experiment is quite advanced now, with the laser systems and most of the electronics in place. We recently achieved our first high-atom-number MOT. However, the real experiments are still a few months away.... so this is a very exciting time to join!
Further Reading:
"Bose-Einstein condensation into non equilibrium states studied by condensate focusing"
I. Shvarchuck, Ch. Buggle, D. S. Petrov, K. Dieckmann, M. Zielonkowski, M. Kemmann, T. G. Tiecke, W. von Klitzing, G. V. Shlyapnikov, and J. T. M. Walraven
Physical Review Letters 89 270404 (2002) (link)
