Category Archives: News

Making BECs smile.

Just for fun… BECs can also smile:  This is a BEC loaded from a dipole trap into a TAAP trap and then propagated for some time. The picture is an absorption  image with darker standing for a higher number of atoms.

We are also learning to write  😉 … for example the letter H

An H-shaped thermal cloud of Rb87 atoms (black is more atoms)

And our latest addition …  the number 9

A BEC in a ring-accelerator. We first load a BEC into a dipole trap and then into the ring. We then accelerate the BEC to speeds, where the centripetal confinement is not sufficient to keep the BEC in the storage ring. (white=more atoms)

 

And of course our smiling BEC

A smiling BEC — a reproducible chance event.
(black is more atoms)

Quantum Technologies in Space (QTSpace)

We have been appointed the Greek representatives of “Quantum Technologies in Space (QTSpace)”.

The scientific and technological legacy of the 20th century includes milestones such as quantum mechanics and pioneering space missions. Both endeavours have opened new avenues for the furthering of our understanding of Nature, and are true landmarks of modern science. Quantum theory and space science form building blocks of a powerful research framework for exploring the boundaries of modern physicsthrough the unique working conditions offered by experimental tests performed in space.

Space-based sources of entangled photons promise the formation of global quantum communication networks, long-distance tests of quantum theory and the interplay between relativity and quantum entanglement.

 

Long free-fall times enable high-precision tests of general relativity and tests of the equivalence principle for quantum systems.

Harnessing microgravity, high vacuum and low temperature of deep space promises allowing the study of deviations from standard quantum theoryfor high-mass test particles. Space-based experiments of metrology and sensing will push the precision of clocks, mass detectors and transducers towards the engineering of novel quantum technologies.

Georgios Vasilakis

Welcome back Georgos !

Georgos Vasilakis is joining us as a postdoc on BEC1.

Before joining us Vasilis was…

09/2012 – 04/2016 PostDoc at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen
Georgo was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Quantop Group
of Eugene S. Polzik  at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.  He was working on Experimental quantum optics / Light-atom quantum interface.
04/2006 – 03/2016 PhD at Princeton University
Georgos did his PhD and M.S. at  Princeton University, NJ under the supervision of  Professor Michael V. Romalis.  The topic of his PhD thesis was: “Precision Measurements of Spin Interactions with High Density Atomic Vapors”

Our Atom Laser is a news star

Out Atom Laser in the Press:

Our Ultra-Bright Atom Laser has selected the article as a New Journal of Physics Highlight of the year 2014.

Phys.org has published a nice semi-popular article about the paper. The New Scientist has also written a rather popularized article about our atom laser.
Note that we have not been given access to any of these articles before publication and are not responsible for its rather imaginative content.

   

An article in Greek can be found in a number of newspapers, e.g. at Kerdos.gr and in.gr
Article at Kerdos and  Article at In.gr

Sigma Live also have made a video interview in Greek about the atom laser.