Optomechanical self-structuring in cold atomic gases

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates optomechanical self-structuring in cold atomic gases, showing spontaneous pattern formation with hexagonal symmetry and potential for quantum gas applications.

Contribution

It introduces a system with multiple degrees of freedom where spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to self-organized patterns in atomic density and optical fields.

Findings

Observation of hexagonal pattern formation

Simultaneous structuring of atomic density and optical fields

Potential extension to quantum degenerate gases

Abstract

The rapidly developing field of optomechanics aims at the combined control of optical and mechanical (solid-state or atomic) modes. In particular, laser cooled atoms have been used to exploit optomechanical coupling for self-organization in a variety of schemes where the accessible length scales are constrained by a combination of pump modes and those associated to a second imposed axis, typically a cavity axis. Here, we consider a system with many spatial degrees of freedom around a single distinguished axis, in which two symmetries - rotations and translations in the plane orthogonal to the pump axis - are spontaneously broken. We observe the simultaneous spatial structuring of the density of a cold atomic cloud and an optical pump beam. The resulting patterns have hexagonal symmetry. The experiment demonstrates the manipulation of matter by opto-mechanical self-assembly with adjustable length scales and can be potentially extended to quantum degenerate gases.