Steering matter wave superradiance with an ultra-narrowband optical cavity

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates control over matter wave superradiance in a superfluid atomic gas using an ultra-narrowband optical cavity, enabling precise manipulation of atomic momentum states through cavity resonance tuning.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control matter wave superradiance with an ultra-narrowband cavity, allowing for precise atomic momentum manipulation and detailed instability boundary analysis.

Findings

Superradiant light pulses emitted above a critical laser intensity.

Atoms are coherently scattered into controllable momentum states.

The instability boundary is characterized and modeled.

Abstract

A superfluid atomic gas is prepared inside an optical resonator with an ultra-narrow band width on the order of the single photon recoil energy. When a monochromatic off-resonant laser beam irradiates the atoms, above a critical intensity the cavity emits superradiant light pulses with a duration on the order of its photon storage time. The atoms are collectively scattered into coherent superpositions of discrete momentum states, which can be precisely controlled by adjusting the cavity resonance frequency. With appropriate pulse sequences the entire atomic sample can be collectively accelerated or decelerated by multiples of two recoil momenta. The instability boundary for the onset of matter wave superradiance is recorded and its main features are explained by a mean field model.