Photonic crystal resonators for inverse-designed multi-dimensional optical interconnects

We experimentally demonstrate a 400 Gbit/s optical communication link utilizing wavelength-division multiplexing and mode-division multiplexing for a total of 40 channels. This link utilizes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, 400 GHz frequency comb source based on a chip-scale photonic crystal resonator. Silicon-on-insulator photonic inverse-designed 4 × 4 mode-division multiplexer structures enable a fourfold increase in data capacity. We show less than -10 dBm of optical receiver power for error-free data transmission in 34 out of a total of 40 channels using a PRBS31 pattern.

Cavity opto-mechanics using an optically levitated nanosphere

Recently, remarkable advances have been made in coupling a number of high-Q modes of nano-mechanical systems to high-finesse optical cavities, with the goal of reaching regimes in which quantum behavior can be observed and leveraged toward new applications. To reach this regime, the coupling between these systems and their thermal environments must be minimized. Here we propose a novel approach to this problem, in which optically levitating a nano-mechanical system can greatly reduce its thermal contact, while simultaneously eliminating dissipation arising from clamping. Through the long coherence times allowed, this approach potentially opens the door to ground-state cooling and coherent manipulation of a single mesoscopic mechanical system or entanglement generation between spatially separate systems, even in room-temperature environments. As an example, we show that these goals should be achievable when the mechanical mode consists of the center-of-mass motion of a levitated nanosphere.

Cavity optomechanics with stoichiometric SiN films

We study high-stress SiN films for reaching the quantum regime with mesoscopic oscillators connected to a room-temperature thermal bath, for which there are stringent requirements on the oscillators' quality factors and frequencies. Our SiN films support mechanical modes with unprecedented products of mechanical quality factor Q(m) and frequency nu(m) reaching Q(m)nu(m) approximately or = 2 x 10(13) Hz. The SiN membranes exhibit a low optical absorption characterized by Im(n) < or approximately equal to 10(-5) at 935 nm, representing a 15 times reduction for SiN membranes. We have developed an apparatus to simultaneously cool the motion of multiple mechanical modes based on a short, high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity and present initial cooling results along with future possibilities.

Bragg spectroscopy of a strongly interacting 85Rb Bose-Einstein condensate

We report on measurements of the excitation spectrum of a strongly interacting Bose-Einstein condensate. A magnetic-field Feshbach resonance is used to tune atom-atom interactions in the condensate and to reach a regime where quantum depletion and beyond mean-field corrections to the condensate chemical potential are significant. We use two-photon Bragg spectroscopy to probe the condensate excitation spectrum; our results demonstrate the onset of beyond mean-field effects in a gaseous Bose-Einstein condensate.

Tunable miscibility in a dual-species Bose-Einstein condensate

We report on the observation of controllable phase separation in a dual-species Bose-Einstein condensate with 85Rb and 87Rb. Interatomic interactions between the different components determine the miscibility of the two quantum fluids. In our experiments, we can clearly observe immiscible behavior via a dramatic spatial separation of the two species. Furthermore, a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance is used to change them between miscible and immiscible by tuning the 85Rb scattering length. The spatial density pattern of the immiscible quantum fluids exhibits complex alternating-domain structures that are uncharacteristic of its stationary ground state.

Observation of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules from a 85Rb-87Rb gas

We report on the observation of ultracold heteronuclear Feshbach molecules. Starting with a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate and a cold atomic gas of 85Rb, we utilize previously unobserved interspecies Feshbach resonances to create up to 25,000 molecules. Even though the 85Rb gas is nondegenerate, we observe a large molecular conversion efficiency due to the presence of a quantum degenerate 87Rb gas; this represents a key feature of our system. We compare the molecule creation at two different Feshbach resonances with different magnetic-field widths. The two Feshbach resonances are located at 265.44+/-0.15 G and 372.4+/-1.3 G. We also directly measure the small binding energy of the molecules through resonant magnetic-field association.

Pauli blocking of collisions in a quantum degenerate atomic Fermi gas

We have produced an interacting quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms composed of two spin states of magnetically trapped 40K. The relative Fermi energies are adjusted by controlling the population in each spin state. Thermodynamic measurements reveal a resulting imbalance in the mean energy per particle between the two species, which is a factor of 1.4 at our lowest temperature. This imbalance of energy comes from a suppression of collisions between atoms in the gas due to the Pauli exclusion principle. Through measurements of the thermal relaxation rate we have directly observed this Pauli blocking as a factor of 2 reduction in the effective collision cross section in the quantum degenerate regime.