Related papers: Atomic states in optical traps near a planar surfa…
We report on the atom optical manipulation of an atom laser beam. Reflection, focusing and its storage in a resonator are demonstrated. Precise and versatile mechanical control over an atom laser beam propagating in an inhomogeneous…
Contemporary experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with gas-phase neutral atoms rely increasingly on laser cooling and optical, magneto-optical or magnetostatic trapping methods to provide atomic localization with…
In the extreme near-field, when the spatial extension of the atomic wavefunction is no longer negligible compared to the atom-surface distance, the dipole approximation is no longer sufficient to describe Casimir-Polder interactions. Here…
We report on theoretical and numerical study of propagation of atomic beams crossing a detuned standing-wave laser beam in the geometric optics limit. The interplay between external and internal atomic degrees of freedom is used to…
We study the Casimir interaction energy due to the vacuum fluctuations of the Electromagnetic (EM) field in the presence of two mirrors, described by $2+1$-dimensional, generally nonlocal actions, which may contain both parity-conserving…
In this habilitation thesis, I briefly present my work at Imperial College London on trapping atomic clouds in micro-pyramids fabricated on silicon chips, which led to the fabrication of an on-chip integrated atom source. Next, I describe…
We experimentally demonstrate efficient interfacing of a large number of atoms to an optical nanofiber using an optical lattice with tunable spacing ($0.88-1.5~\mu$m) projected onto the nanofiber. The lattice beam and reflections from the…
On the basis of macroscopic quantum electrodynamics and point-scattering techniques, we derive a closed expression for the Casimir-Polder force between a ground-state atom and a small magnetodielectric sphere in an arbitrary environment. In…
We study an ultracold atomic gas with attractive interactions in a one-dimensional optical lattice. We find that its excitation spectrum displays a quantum soliton band, corresponding to $N$-particle bound states, and a continuum band of…
One-dimensional superlattices with periodic spatial modulations of onsite potentials or tunneling coefficients can exhibit a variety of properties associated with topology or symmetry. Recent developments of ring-shaped optical lattices…
Recently the Casmir-Polder force felt by an atom near a substrate under nonequilibrium stationary conditions has been studied theoretically with macroscopic quantum electrodyanamics (MQED) and verified experimentally with cold atoms. We…
Optical lattices can be loaded with atoms which can have strong interactions, such that the interaction of atoms at different lattice sites cannot be neglected. Moreover, the intersite interactions can be so strong that it can force the…
The Casimir-Polder-Lifshitz force felt by an atom near the surface of a substrate is calculated out of thermal equilibrium in terms of the dielectric function of the material and of the atomic polarizability. The new force decays like…
Studies of the long-range interactions between cold atoms and surfaces are now of vital interest. The interest is partly driven by nanotechnology applications, partly by the exploding interest in the encompassing superfield of Casimir…
We investigate the temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder interaction in the electrostatic limit. This unusual phenomenon relies on the coupling between a virtual atomic transition and a thermal excitation of surface polariton modes.…
The focusing of the vacuum modes of a quantized field by a parabolic mirror is investigated. We use a geometric optics approximation to calculate the energy density and mean squared field averages for scalar and electromagnetic fields near…
Stable assemblages of localized vortices exist which have particle-like properties, such as mass, and which can interact with one another when they closely approach. In this article I calculate the mass of these localized states and…
We present the first direct measurements of Casimir-Polder forces between solid surfaces and atomic gases in the transition regime between the electrostatic short-distance and the retarded long-distance limit. The experimental method is…
We investigate the magnetic dipole coupling between a metallic surface and an atom in a thermal state, ground state and excited hyperine state. This interaction results in a repulsive correction and - unlike the electrical dipole…
A quantum electrodynamic calculation of the interaction of an excited-state atom with a ground-state atom is performed. For an excited reference state and a lower-lying virtual state, the contribution to the interaction energy naturally…