Guided Mattewave Interferometry (BEC1): We are constructing a coherently guided matter-wave interferometer. Our matter-waves will be made from Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC). The interferometer will consist of a novel magnetic ring-shaped waveguide based on time-averaged adiabatic potentials (TAAP). A little ‘teaser’ movie of our TAAP can be seen here.
Atom Laser (BEC2): We have set up a second experiment, which will look at BEC at higher atom numbers. We recently demonstrated a novel atom laser, which has a record flux of 4 x 10^7 atom/s. We also made the coldest thermal source to date (200nK). We are currently exploring the phase properties of atom lasers.
Cavity Enhanced Microscopy: This project aims at enhancing a map of the complex refractive index of an object using an optical cavity. This will be applied to biological samples and to non-destructive imaging of atoms in a BEC.
Space optics: We are currently developing in colaboration with ESA novel technologies for beam steering on compact optical bread boards. The aim of the project is to simplify existing techniques whilst increasing stability and scalability.