CONT-BECS · Evaporative of a guided atomic beam: towards a continuous Bose-Einstein condensate source
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2004-12-01 → 2006-11-30
- EU contribution
- €159,353
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- IIF
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Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - CONT-BECS (Evaporative of a guided atomic beam: towards a continous Bose-Einstein condensate source.)
The long term goal of the experiment on which I have worked is the realisation of a continuous atom laser, which corresponds to the generation of a continuous source of Bose-Einstein condensate. For this purpose, one has to realise an intense source of slow and cold atoms confined by a two-dimensional magnetic guide. One possible scheme that we have investigated consists in periodically launching fast packets of atoms into a magnetic guide that are subsequently slowed down by an elastic collision with a magnetic potential barrier moving along the guide. Once the beam generated, its temperature can be reduced by applying an energy-selective 'knife' (named evaporative cooling) which removes atoms having a transverse energy above the average. As the remaining atoms propagate further downstream and re-thermalise through elastic collisions, the beam temperature decreases and the phase-space density of the beam increases. We have implemented this technique of evaporative cooling on a magnetically guided beam, resulting in a gain of one order of the on-axis phase space density, which constitutes a 'premiere' in the domain. It is important to emphasise that applying evaporative cooling on an atomic beam is significantly more difficult than on a trapped packet of atoms, since there is no longitudinal confinement which is responsible for the decrease of the dimensionality of evaporation as well as for the dilution of the atomic density. In order to overcome these limitations, we have also achieved a three-dimensional moving chain of magnetic traps to simultaneously trap and transport several packets of atoms at low speed and cool them down by evaporative cooling before releasing them into the magnetic guide to form a continuous atomic beam. All these achievements paved the way for the generation of a continuous and intense source of Bose-Einstein condensate.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Nanostructured functional materials constitute one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding fields in science and technology, which include their use in such diverse areas as materials technology, biotechnonology, energy and environmental technology, electronics, catalytic applications etc.From other side, the increasingly important role in biophysics and in life sciences is played by laser spectroscopie methods. The present project challenges one of the most exciting and phenomena rich sub-fields of nano-science and nano-technology (N&N): the interaction of visible and near visible light with nanostructured materials. It is aimed at fabrication of optically active synthetic nanostructures for the exploration of sensing mechanisms with biological matter.In the framework of the present project research activity is planned to be concentrated on, firstly, deliberate fabrication of optically-active substrate by means of state-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques (e-beam lithography, colloidal lithography etc.) an d, secondly, exploration of obtained optically-active substrates for biosensing applications.Utilizing shaped metallic nanostructures or arrays of metallic nanostructures to influence the fluorescence of biomolecules in close proximity to the surface is planned by tuning surface plasmon resonance energy of formed nano architectures. Controlled positioning of macromolecular species on the pre-fomed nobel metal nanostructures to probe enhanced fluorescence or enhanced quenching, necessary for ultra-sensitive detection scheme, will be performed.Later goal constitutes a demonstration of sensitivity of built architectures to the binding events between preformed sensing platform and biomolecular species, complementary to those available in the fabricated synthetic bio-nano architectures. Overall, the results of research activity are expected to contribute substantially in fundamental understanding of surface enhancement
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUECoordinatorCity levelUnknown Region
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union