We present results on a Raman laser-system that resonantly drives a closed two-photon transition between two levels in different hyperfine ground states of (87)Rb. The coupler is based on a novel optical design for producing two phase-coherent optical beams to drive a Raman transition. Operated as an outcoupler, it produces an atom laser in a single internal atomic state, with the lower diverge...

We describe an atom-optical technique for producing large changes in the momentum of cold atoms using a pulsed standing wave of off-resonant light. Experimental results are presented showing how the efficiency and the amount of momentum transfer depend on the parameters of the light field. We also present a theoretical analysis and derive a closed formula which is in excellent agreement with th...

We report on experimental observations of chaotic and regular motion of ultracold atoms confined by a billiard-shaped optical dipole potential induced by a rapidly scanning laser beam. To investigate the dynamics of the atoms confined by such an "atom-optics" billiard we measure the decay of the number of trapped atoms through a hole on the boundary. A fast and purely exponential decay, the cle...

The next generation of ground-based astronomical observatories will require fabrication and maintenance of extremely large segmented mirrors tens of meters in diameter. At present, the large production of segments required by projects like E-ELT and TMT poses time frames and costs feasibility questions. This is principally due to a bottleneck stage in the optical fabrication chain: the final fi...

We show that the quantum fidelity is accessible to cold atom experiments for a large class of evolutions in periodical potentials, properly taking into account the experimental initial conditions of the atomic ensemble. We prove analytically that, at the fundamental quantum resonances of the Atom-Optics Kicked Rotor, the fidelity saturates at a constant, time-independent value after a small num...

We study a fermionic atom optics counterpart of parametric down-conversion with photons. This can be realized through dissociation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of molecular dimers consisting of fermionic atoms. We present a theoretical model describing the quantum dynamics of dissociation and find analytic solutions for mode occupancies and atomic pair correlations, valid in the short time lim...

Unexpected accelerator modes were recently observed experimentally for cold cesium atoms when driven in the presence of gravity. A detailed theoretical explanation of this quantum effect is presented here. The theory makes use of invariance properties of the system, that are similar to the ones of solids, leading to a separation into independent kicked rotor problems. The analytical solution ma...

We analyze the advantages of using ultra-cold coherent sources of atoms for matter-wave interferometry in space. We present a proof-of-principle experiment that is based on an analysis of the results previously published in [1] from which we extract the ratio h/m for 87 Rb. This measurement shows that a limitation in accuracy arises due to atomic interactions within the Bose-Einstein condensate...

The breaking of reciprocity is a topic great interest in fundamental physics and optical information processing applications. We demonstrate nonreciprocal light transport quantum system hot atoms by engineering the dissipative atomic reservoir. Our scheme based on phase-sensitive multichannel photon-atom interaction configuration, where phase collective excitations tunable through external driv...

The main focus of this area of research is the development of criteria for mesoscopic and macroscopic entanglement and their application to both continuous variable and discrete (spin) measurements on squeezed Gaussian states and macroscopic Bell states respectively. This involves several types of investigation. At the fundamental level, we are developing new EPR, Bell and GHZ related classical...