Related papers: Study of light-assisted collisions between a few c…
We investigate the role of hyperfine structure in resonant-dipole interactions between two atoms cotrapped in an optical tweezer. Two-body loss rates from light-assisted collisions (LACs) are measured across the $^{87}$Rb hyperfine spectrum…
We have studied hetero- and homonuclear excited state/ground state collisions by loading both $^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb into a far off resonant trap (FORT). Because of the relatively weak confinement of the FORT, we expect the hyperfine…
We study the dynamics of atoms in optical traps when exposed to laser cooling light that induces light-assisted collisions. We experimentally prepare individual atom pairs and observe their evolution. Due to the simplicity of the system…
In two-color optical nanofiber-based dipole traps for cold alkali atoms, the trap efficiency depends on the wavelength and intensity of light in the evanescent field, and the initial laser-cooling process. Typically, no more than one atom…
We studied light assisted collisions of Tm atoms in a magneto optical trap (MOT) for the first time, working on a weak cooling transition at 530.7 nm $(4f^{13}(^2F^0)6s^2,J=7/2,F=4$ to $4f^{12}(^3H_6)5d_{5/2}6s^2,J=9/2,F=5)$. We observed a…
We present measurements and calculations of the trap loss rate for laser cooled Rb atoms confined in either a magneto-optic or a magnetic quadrupole trap when exposed to a room temperature background gas of Ar. We study the loss rate as a…
We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different…
We study inelastic collisions between CaF molecules and $^{87}$Rb atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap. The presence of atoms increases the loss rate of molecules from the trap. By measuring the loss rates and density distributions,…
We describe a simple experimental technique which allows to store a single Rubidium 87 atom in an optical dipole trap. Due to light-induced two-body collisions during the loading stage of the trap the maximum number of captured atoms is…
We present a quantitative investigation of one- and two-body light-mediated processes that occur to few erbium atoms in an optical tweezer, when exposed to near-resonant light. In order to study the intertwined effects of recoil heating,…
We report on light-shift tomography of a cloud of 87 Rb atoms in a far-detuned optical-dipole trap at 1565 nm. Our method is based on standard absorption imaging, but takes advantage of the strong light-shift of the excited state of the…
The parity of atomic wave functions prevents neutral atoms from having permanent electric-dipole moment. Electric-dipole moment is induced in an atom when exposed to strong light, the electric field of the light. Hence the optical trapping…
We have studied the effects of loading $^{87}$Rb into a far off resonant trap (FORT) in the presence of an ultracold cloud of $^{85}$Rb. The presence of the $^{85}$Rb resulted in a marked decrease of the $^{87}$Rb load rate. This decrease…
We have trapped cesium atoms over many minutes in the focus of a CO$_2$-laser beam employing an extremely simple laser system. Collisional properties of the unpolarized atoms in their electronic ground state are investigated. Inelastic…
We investigate collisional loss in an ultracold mixture of $^{40}$K$^{87}$Rb molecules and $^{87}$Rb atoms, where chemical reactions between the two species are energetically forbidden. Through direct detection of the KRb$_{2}^{*}$…
An absorption of a weak pulse by two identical atoms moving in a trap is investigated. Based on atom-light interactions we present a microscopic model of a two-body wave function diagnosis. We study the influence of pulse properties on the…
We have experimentally explored a novel possibility to study exoergic cold atomic collisions. Trapping of small countable atom numbers in a shallow magneto-optical trap and monitoring of their temporal dynamics allows us to directly observe…
We investigate experimentally the number statistics of a mesoscopic ensemble of cold atoms in a microscopic dipole trap loaded from a magneto-optical trap, and find that the atom number fluctuations are reduced with respect to a Poisson…
Understanding collisions between ultracold molecules is crucial for making stable molecular quantum gases and harnessing their rich internal degrees of freedom for quantum engineering. Transient complexes can strongly influence collisional…
We perform fluorescence imaging of a single 87Rb atom after its release from an optical dipole trap. The time-of-flight expansion of the atomic spatial density distribution is observed by accumulating many single atom images. The position…