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.
Recent highlights
- Incommensurable matter-wave jets in quasi-1D geometry
Our paper on “golden jets” was published in Communications Physics! Bose-Einstein condensates subjected to modulation of the interaction between atoms exhibit the emergence of density waves and matter-wave jets with a velocity proportional to the square root of the modulation frequency, which we already observed a few years ago. In the newly published paper, we… - Mbit/s-range alkali vapour spin noise quantum random number generators
Our paper on quantum random number generators was published in NPJ Quantum Technology! In the paper, we explore spin noise based quantum random number generators. This type of quantum random number generators first appeared in 2008 and have since then garnered little further interest, in part because their bit rate is limited by the transverse…
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.
Selected Publications
| Preparation of ultra-cold atomic-ensemble arrays using time-multiplexed optical tweezers Katja Gosar, Vesna Pirc Jevšenak, Tadej Mežnaršič, Dušan Babič, Igor Poberaj, Erik Zupanič, and Peter Jeglič Phys. Rev. A 106, 022604 (2022), arXiv:2203.11617 |
| Single-shot Stern-Gerlach magnetic gradiometer with an expanding cloud of cold cesium atoms Katja Gosar, Tina Arh, Tadej Mežnaršič, Ivan Kvasič, Dušan Ponikvar, Tomaž Apih, Rainer Kaltenbaek, Rok Žitko, Erik Zupanič, Samo Beguš, and Peter Jeglič Phys. Rev. A 103, 022611 (2021), arXiv:2011.09779 |
| Emission of correlated jets from a driven matter-wave soliton in a quasi-one-dimensional geometry Tadej Mežnaršič, Rok Žitko, Tina Arh, Katja Gosar, Erik Zupanič, and Peter Jeglič Phys. Rev. A 101, 031601(R) (2020), arXiv:1905.10286 |
| Cesium bright matter-wave solitons and soliton trains Tadej Mežnaršič, Tina Arh, Jure Brence, Jaka Pišljar, Katja Gosar, Žiga Gosar, Rok Žitko, Erik Zupanič, and Peter Jeglič Phys. Rev. A 99, 033625 (2019), arXiv:1902.03144 |
Ongoing Projects
Physics of quantum and functional materials
Physics of quantum technologies
Development of building blocks for new European quantum communication network
Latest news
- Quantum day on radio Val 202Radio Val 202 held a celebration of the World Quantum Day on April 16th. Rok Žitko and Peter Jeglič were among other guests talking about their research. The interviews are available as a podcast on https://val202.rtvslo.si/podkast/frekvenca-x/31057643/175125057.
- Incommensurable matter-wave jets in quasi-1D geometryOur paper on “golden jets” was published in Communications Physics! Bose-Einstein condensates subjected to modulation of the interaction between atoms exhibit the emergence of density waves and matter-wave jets with a velocity proportional to the square root of the modulation frequency, which we already observed a few years ago. In the newly published paper, we…