Reducing number fluctuations of ultracold atomic gases via dispersive interrogation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a nondestructive laser probing method to monitor and predict atom number fluctuations in ultracold gases during evaporative cooling, enabling reduced classical fluctuations through dispersive interrogation.

Contribution

It introduces a dispersive detection scheme for real-time monitoring and prediction of atom number, reducing fluctuations in ultracold atomic gases.

Findings

Successful nondestructive measurement of density evolution

Prediction of atom number after evaporation

Conditional reduction of classical number fluctuations

Abstract

We have used nondestructive laser probing to follow the central density evolution of a trapped atomic cloud during forced evaporative cooling. This was achieved in a heterodyne dispersive detection scheme. We propose to use this as a precursor measurement for predicting the atom number subsequent to evaporation and provide a simple experimental demonstration of the principle leading to a conditional reduction of classical number fluctuations.