Related papers: Quantitative absorption imaging of optically dense…
We present a novel imaging system for ultracold quantum gases in expansion. After release from a confining potential, atoms fall through a sheet of resonant excitation laser light and the emitted fluorescence photons are imaged onto an…
We introduce a novel application of the Hartmann sensor, traditionally designed for wavefront sensing, to measure the coherence properties of optical signals. By drawing an analogy between the coherence matrix and the density matrix of a…
Recently, sparsity-based algorithms are proposed for super-resolution spectrum estimation. However, to achieve adequately high resolution in real-world signal analysis, the dictionary atoms have to be close to each other in frequency,…
A simple, yet general, formalism for the optimized linear combination of astrophysical images is constructed and demonstrated. The formalism allows the user to combine multiple undersampled images to provide oversampled output at high…
We consider the inverse problem of in-line holography, applied to minimally-destructive imaging of cold atom clouds. Absorption imaging near-resonance provides a simple, but destructive measurement of atom column density. Imaging off…
We study optical spectra of finite electronic quantum systems at frequencies smaller than the plasma frequency using a quasi-classical approach. This approach includes collective effects and enables us to analyze how the nature of the…
Optical absorption is one of fundamental light-matter interactions. In most materials, optical absorption is a weak perturbation to the light. In this regime, absorption and emission are irreversible, incoherent processes due to strong…
We analyze the fundamental resolution of incoherent optical point sources from the perspective of a quantum detection problem: deciding whether the optical field on the image plane is generated by one source or two weaker sources with…
Absorption and gain processes are fundamental to any light-matter interaction and a precise measurement of these parameters is important for various scientific and technological applications. Quantum probes, specifically the squeezed states…
The technologies of heating, photovoltaics, water photocatalysis and artificial photosynthesis depend on the absorption of light and novel approaches such as coherent absorption from a standing wave promise total dissipation of energy.…
We present a non-Hermitian theory of atomic and molecular absorption, which enables computing the absorption spectrum of multi-electron atoms and molecules without using any fitting parameters. We propose a method for optically inducing…
The signal half of an entangled twin-beam, generated using spontaneous parametric downconversion, interrogates a region of space that is suspected of containing a target, and has high loss and high (entanglement-breaking) background noise.…
Highest resolution laser spectroscopy has generally been limited to single trapped ion systems due to rapid decoherence which plagues neutral atom ensembles. Here, precision spectroscopy of ultracold neutral atoms confined in a trapping…
We describe the implementation of a system for studying light-matter interactions using an ensemble of $10^6$ cold rubidium 87 atoms, trapped in a single-beam optical dipole trap. In this configuration the elongated shape of the atomic…
This dissertation studies the statistics and modeling of a quantum system probed by a coherent laser field. We focus on an ensemble of qubits dispersively coupled to a traveling wave light field. The first research topic explores the…
The design and characterization of a new laser-desorption molecular beam source, tailored for use in x-ray-free-electron-laser and ultrashort-pulse-laser imaging experiments, is presented. It consists of a single mechanical unit containing…
Photoionization of a cold atomic sample offers intriguing possibilities to observe collective effects at extremely low temperatures. Irradiation of a rubidium condensate and of cold rubidium atoms within a magneto-optical trap with laser…
Metasurface based super absorbers exhibit near unity absorbance. While the absorption peak can be tuned by the geometry/size of the sub-wavelength resonator, broadband absorption can be obtained by placing multiple resonators of various…
Quantum optical techniques may yield immersion fluids with high indices of refraction without absorption. We describe one such technique in which a probe field experiences a large index of refraction with amplification rather than…
We have studied relative-intensity fluctuations for a variable set of orthogonal elliptic polarization components of a linearly polarized laser beam traversing a resonant $^{87}$Rb vapor cell. Significant polarization squeezing at the…