Phase contrast imaging of Bose condensed clouds
Abstract
Phase contrast imaging is used to observe Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) at finite temperature in situ. The imaging technique is used to accurately derive the absolute phase shift of a probe laser beam due to both the condensate and the thermal cloud. The accuracy of the method is enhanced by using the periodicity of the intensity signal as a function of the accumulated phase. The measured density profiles can be described using a two relevant parameter fit, in which only the chemical potential and the temperature are to be determined. This allows us to directly compare the measured density profiles to different mean-field models in which the interaction between the condensed and thermal atoms is taken into account to various degrees.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0909.4429,
title = {Phase contrast imaging of Bose condensed clouds},
author = {R. Meppelink and R. A. Rozendaal and S. B. Koller and J. M. Vogels and P. van der Straten},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.4429},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
12 pages, submitted to Physical Review A