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Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...

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By comparison an a<strong>to</strong>mic Fock state can be def<strong>in</strong>ed as hav<strong>in</strong>g N a<strong>to</strong>ms <strong>in</strong> a well-<br />

def<strong>in</strong>ed state of a trap. Pho<strong>to</strong>n Fock states can be achieved by creat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>and</strong> destroy<strong>in</strong>g<br />

pho<strong>to</strong>ns directly. A<strong>to</strong>ms, <strong>in</strong> contrast, cannot be created or destroyed, <strong>and</strong> other methods<br />

are required <strong>to</strong> create an N-a<strong>to</strong>m Fock state. In pr<strong>in</strong>ciple the a<strong>to</strong>ms could be <strong>in</strong> any<br />

state of the trap, but the ground state appears <strong>to</strong> be the easiest <strong>to</strong> realize experimentally.<br />

Multiple experiments have realized the production of N a<strong>to</strong>ms <strong>in</strong> a trap without<br />

controll<strong>in</strong>g the state [89–93]. For most quantum measurements the quantum state is<br />

very important, <strong>and</strong> the creation of a true a<strong>to</strong>mic Fock state is therefore desirable.<br />

The orig<strong>in</strong>al proposal <strong>to</strong> generate a<strong>to</strong>mic Fock States was <strong>to</strong> implement a ’quan-<br />

tum tweezer’ <strong>to</strong> determ<strong>in</strong>istically remove N a<strong>to</strong>ms from a reservoir of condensate a<strong>to</strong>ms<br />

through L<strong>and</strong>au-Zener tunnel<strong>in</strong>g [94]. In a second scheme, a<strong>to</strong>ms are determ<strong>in</strong>istically<br />

transferred from a Bose-E<strong>in</strong>ste<strong>in</strong> condensate, conf<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> a weak trapp<strong>in</strong>g potential, <strong>to</strong><br />

a selected state of a strongly conf<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g potential [95].<br />

A simpler scheme, called laser cull<strong>in</strong>g, has been utilized <strong>to</strong> observe sub-Poissonian<br />

number statistics <strong>in</strong> a trapped sample of bosonic 87 Rb [96] <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> create two-a<strong>to</strong>m<br />

fermionic Fock states with a fidelity (probability of f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g two a<strong>to</strong>ms <strong>in</strong> the ground<br />

state of the trap) of 96% [97]. The follow<strong>in</strong>g section will describe the method of laser<br />

cull<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> more detail.<br />

6.2 Laser Cull<strong>in</strong>g<br />

After evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g, the a<strong>to</strong>m number of a degenerate gas <strong>in</strong> a trap is<br />

unknown. If the trap depth is reduced, eventually the trap will be completely filled<br />

<strong>and</strong> any further trap reduction will force a<strong>to</strong>ms <strong>to</strong> leave the trap. The a<strong>to</strong>m number<br />

<strong>in</strong> this trap can be controlled, if the relation between the supported number of a<strong>to</strong>ms<br />

<strong>and</strong> the trapp<strong>in</strong>g potential is known. Of course this implies that the potential can be<br />

controlled precisely enough, <strong>and</strong> that the trap reduction does not cause excitation with<strong>in</strong><br />

the degenerate gas.<br />

For a quasi one-dimensional Bose-E<strong>in</strong>ste<strong>in</strong> condensate <strong>in</strong> the Thomas-Fermi limit,<br />

the a<strong>to</strong>m number is related <strong>to</strong> the trap depth by N ∝ U 5/2<br />

0 , <strong>and</strong> thus a precise control of<br />

86

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