Squeezed states in a Bose-Einstein condensate.
We report manipulation of the atom number statistics associated with Bose-Einstein condensed atoms confined in an array of weakly linked mesoscopic traps. We used the interference of atoms released from the traps as a sensitive probe of these statistics. By controlling relative strengths of the tunneling rate between traps and atom-atom interactions within each trap, we observed trap states characterized by sub-Poissonian number fluctuations and adiabatic transitions between these number-squeezed states and coherent states of the atom field. The quantum states produced in this work may enable substantial gains in sensitivity for atom interference-based instruments as well as fundamental studies of quantum phase transitions.
Orzel
C
C
Physics Department, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
Tuchman
A K
AK
Fenselau
M L
ML
Yasuda
M
M
Kasevich
M A
MA