Abstract
We report the first experimental observation of strong suppression of matter-wave superradiance using blue-detuned pump light and demonstrate a pump-laser detuning asymmetry in the collective atomic recoil motion. In contrast to all previous theoretical frameworks, which predict that the process should be symmetric with respect to the sign of the detuning of the pump laser from the one-photon resonance, we find that for condensates the symmetry is broken. With high condensate densities and red-detuned pump light the distinctive multi-order, matter-wave scattering pattern is clearly visible, whereas with blue-detuned pump light superradiance is strongly suppressed. However, in the limit of a dilute atomic gas symmetry is restored.
© 2011 Optical Society of America
PDF ArticleMore Like This
Erik W. Streed, Dominik Schneble, Gretchen K. Campbell, Micah Boyd, David E. Pritchard, and Wolfgang Ketterle
IMM1 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 2004
L. Deng, Chengjie Zhu, and E. W. Hagley
LW4H.2 Laser Science (LS) 2013
Jasur A. Abdullaev, Anton S. Desyatnikov, and Elena A. Ostrovskaya
I847 International Quantum Electronics Conference (IQEC) 2011