title: Preparation of Ultracold Atom Clouds at the Shot Noise Level.
abstract: We prepare number stabilized ultracold atom clouds through the real-time analysis of nondestructive images and the application of feedback. In our experiments, the atom number N∼10^{6} is determined by high precision Faraday imaging with uncertainty ΔN below the shot noise level, i.e., ΔN<sqrt[N]. Based on this measurement, feedback is applied to reduce the atom number to a user-defined target, whereupon a second imaging series probes the number stabilized cloud. By this method, we show that the atom number in ultracold clouds can be prepared below the shot noise level.
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Gajdacz
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: A J
authors: AJ
authors: Hilliard
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: M A
authors: MA
authors: Kristensen
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: P L
authors: PL
authors: Pedersen
authors: Institut für Quantenoptik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, D-30167 Hannover, Germany.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Klempt
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: J J
authors: JJ
authors: Arlt
authors: Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Aarhus Universitet, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
authors: J F
authors: JF
authors: Sherson