Welcome to the website of the Slovenian cold atom lab. We use an ultracold quantum gas of cesium to explore matter waves and to develop quantum devices.

BEC is a state of coupled bosonic atoms at a temperature near absolute zero. Under these conditions, a large fraction of the atoms occupy the lowest quantum state, while the quantum nature of atoms is manifested in the form of superfluidity. The superfluidity is a macroscopic phenomenon where the material behaves as a quantum fluid that flows without viscosity and is analogous to the phenomenon of superconductivity in solids. Because of this analogy the BEC can be used as a quantum simulator of solid state physics, e.g., to study superconductivity and, in more general, to explore the physics of strongly correlated electrons.

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  Suppression of dark-state polariton collapses in a cold-atom quantum memoryMay 12, 2023
  Our paper on quantum memory collapses and revivals is now on arXiv. In the paper, we show our experimental observation of dark-state polariton collapses and revivals in a quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency on a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a magnetic field. We suppress the dark-state polariton collapses by polarizing the…
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  Incommensurable matter-wave jets in quasi-1D geometryMarch 27, 2023
  Our paper on incommensurate matter-wave jets is on arXiv. In the paper, we experimentally show the formation of incommensurable “golden” matter-wave jets in a Bose-Einstein condensate subjected to single frequency interaction modulation. We study the formation of higher order jets and corresponding incommensurable density waves in quasi one dimensional geometry with the help of numerical…

Using lasers and magnetooptical trap the cesium atoms in the ultrahigh vacuum are first slowed down and caught, and thus cooled to the temperature range of several hundred μK. In the next step, by means of Raman transitions, the cesium atoms end up in one of the well-defined low-lying energy states and the temperature falls below 1 μK. At the same time the atoms are caught in the so-called optical trap by a set of extremely powerful laser beams. The atoms are further cooled by evaporation, which lowers the temperature to the range of nK, which is low enough for the atoms to condense.

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  Suppression of dark-state polariton collapses in a cold-atom quantum memoryMay 12, 2023
  Our paper on quantum memory collapses and revivals is now on arXiv. In the paper, we show our experimental observation of dark-state polariton collapses and revivals in a quantum memory based on electromagnetically induced transparency on a cloud of cold cesium atoms in a magnetic field. We suppress the dark-state polariton collapses by polarizing the…
• World Quantum DayMarch 31, 2023
  On April 14th we celebrate World Quantum Day. On this occasion the Slovene quantum technology community and Jožef Stefan Institute are preparing a series of events including a workshop for high school students, presentations, talks and an exhibition of posters. The program of events can be found here.