Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) are a new form of matter with quantum mechanical properties, the super-cooled atoms behaving more like waves and less like discrete atoms. First created in 1995 [1], BECs are coherent matter-wave fields with a well-defined phase that allow the study of a wide range of phenomena and that can be used to probe the boundaries between classical and quantum physics.

Current Research Topics

• Optomechanical self-organisation
• Spontaneous magnetic ordering by light
• Cooperative scattering of light by cold atoms
• Breathing solitons in a Caesium BEC
• Solitonic features in a collisionally inhomogeneous Caesium BEC

 

[1] M. H. Anderson, J. R. Ensher, M. R. Matthews, C. E. Wieman and E. A. Cornell, Science 269, 5221 (1995).