Continuous Bose-Einstein condensation

Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) are macroscopic coherent matter waves that have revolutionized quantum science and atomic physics. They are essential to quantum simulation and sensing, for example underlying atom interferometers in space and ambitious tests of Einstein's equivalence principle. The key to dramatically increasing the bandwidth and precision of such matter-wave sensors lies in sustaining a coherent matter wave indefinitely. Here we demonstrate continuous Bose-Einstein condensation by creating a continuous-wave (CW) condensate of strontium atoms that lasts indefinitely. The coherent matter wave is sustained by amplification through Bose-stimulated gain of atoms from a thermal bath. By steadily replenishing this bath while achieving 1000x higher phase-space densities than previous works, we maintain the conditions for condensation. This advance overcomes a fundamental limitation of all atomic quantum gas experiments to date: the need to execute several cooling stages time-sequentially. Continuous matter-wave amplification will make possible CW atom lasers, atomic counterparts of CW optical lasers that have become ubiquitous in technology and society. The coherence of such atom lasers will no longer be fundamentally limited by the atom number in a BEC and can ultimately reach the standard quantum limit. Our development provides a new, hitherto missing piece of atom optics, enabling the construction of continuous coherent matter-wave devices. From infrasound gravitational wave detectors to optical clocks, the dramatic improvement in coherence, bandwidth and precision now within reach will be decisive in the creation of a new class of quantum sensors.

17 pages, 10 figures

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• Atom Interferometers
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• A New Method for Gravitational Wave Detection with Atomic Sensors
• Matter-wave Atomic Gradiometer Interferometric Sensor (MAGIS-100)
• Testing the universality of free fall with rubidium and ytterbium in a very large baseline atom interferometer
• Production of quantum degenerate strontium gases: Larger, better, faster, colder
• Ultracold atom interferometry in space
• A pumped atom laser
• Direct laser cooling to Bose-Einstein condensation in a dipole trap
• Space-time vortex driven crossover and vortex turbulence phase transition in one-dimensional driven open condensates
• Generating squeezing in an atom laser through self-interaction
• The Heisenberg limit for laser coherence
• Proposal for a continuous wave laser with linewidth well below the standard quantum limit
• Kinetics of Bose-Einstein condensation in a dimple potential

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• Reservoir-based deterministic loading of single-atom tweezer arrays
• Atom-Number Enhancement by Shielding Atoms from Losses in Strontium Magneto-Optical Traps
• Kolmogorov turbulence in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates
• Continuous cavity-QED with an atomic beam
• Modeling of a continuous superradiant laser on the sub-mHz ${}^1$S${}_0\to {}^3$P${}_0$ transition in neutral strontium-88
• Optical pumping of ${5s4d}^1{\mathrm{D}}_2$ strontium atoms for laser cooling and imaging
• Continuous loading of magneto-optical trap of Rb at narrow transition
• Coherent Three-Photon Excitation of the Strontium Clock Transition
• The Harmonic Oscillator Potential Perturbed by a Combination of Linear and Non-linear Dirac Delta Interactions with Application to Bose-Einstein Condensation
• Bose-Einstein condensation by polarization gradient laser cooling
• How to exploit driving and dissipation to stabilize and manipulate quantum many-body states
• A Compact Dual-Beam Zeeman Slower for High-Flux Cold Atoms
• Driven-Dissipative Bose-Einstein Condensation and the Upper Critical Dimension
• A superradiant two-level laser with intrinsic light force generated gain
• All-optical bubble trap for ultracold atoms in microgravity
• Laser-cooling Cadmium Bosons and Fermions with Near Ultraviolet Triplet Excitations
• An atomic Fabry-Perot interferometer-based acceleration sensor for microgravity environments
• Superradiant active optical atomic clocks: motivations and current challenges
• Compact Continuous Cold Atomic Beam from a Single Cell with 3D Cooling and Ultra-low Light Shift
• Multimode feedback cooling of the collective modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Quantum nature of gravity in a Bose-Einstein condensate