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Post-Doc Positions

We are open to people from different backgrounds. 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... contact Wolf von Klitzing! Please, feel also free to contact anyone in our team to get a feel, as to what it is like to work in the Cretan Matter-Waves Group.

Coherence in Large Atom Number BECs

Bose-Einstein Condensates are amongst the best-controlled macroscopic quantum states. Having been predicted by Einstein already in 1924, it took until 1995 for it to be realized experimentally. BECs are now model systems for our understanding of questions ranging from superfluid quantum vortices to solid-state problems such as the Mot-insulator state. Especially the dynamic aspects of the formation process promise to be of great interest. Moreover, the rise of coherence in a condensate strongly interacting with a thermal cloud is almost virgin territory.

You would take charge of constructing our second BEC machine, which will be dedicated to this topic. In oder to spped things up, much of the technology will be taken from out current machine or from your experience. The main improvements will be directed towards much higher atom numbers.

The construction of this experiment has just started. The optical tables and part of the vacuum system have arrived. However, the real experiments are still a few months away....

For further information please contact Wolf von Klitzing or anyone else in our team!

Further reading:
"Bose-Einstein condensation into nonequilibrium 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)

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 are about to finish the construction of our BEC machine and are now rapidly approaching the area of matter-wave interferometry. We will also have a closer look at vortex dynamics in ring-shaped potentials.

So, if you are interested in joining the matter-wave interferometer just when it is about to become reality: please do not hesitate to contact Wolf von Klitzing. You might also want to talk to any of the current post-docs to get an idea of what it is like to work on Crete.

- 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))