Bose-Einstein Condensation of Photons in a Four-Site Quantum Ring.

Thermalization of radiation by contact to matter is a well-known concept, but the application of thermodynamic methods to complex quantum states of light remains a challenge. Here, we observe Bose-Einstein condensation of photons into the hybridized ground state of a coupled four-site ring potential. In our experiment, the periodically closed ring lattice superimposed by a weak harmonic trap for photons is realized inside a spatially structured dye-filled microcavity. Photons thermalize to room temperature, and above a critical photon number macroscopically occupy the symmetric linear combination of the site eigenstates with zero phase winding, which constitutes the ground state of the system. The mutual phase coherence of photons at different lattice sites is verified by optical interferometry.

Fluctuation-Dissipation Relation for a Bose-Einstein Condensate of Photons.

For equilibrium systems, the magnitude of thermal fluctuations is closely linked to the dissipative response to external perturbations. This fluctuation-dissipation relation has been described for material particles in a wide range of fields. Here, we experimentally probe the relation between the number fluctuations and the response function for a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons coupled to a dye reservoir, demonstrating the fluctuation-dissipation relation for a quantum gas of light. The observed agreement of the scale factor with the environment temperature both directly confirms the thermal nature of the optical condensate and demonstrates the validity of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Phase Coherence of a Photon Bose-Einstein Condensate Coupled to a Reservoir.

We examine the phase evolution of a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons generated in a dye microcavity by temporal interference with a phase reference. The photoexcitable dye molecules constitute a reservoir of variable size for the condensate particles, allowing for grand canonical statistics with photon bunching, as in a lamp-type source. We directly observe phase jumps of the condensate associated with the large statistical number fluctuations and find a separation of correlation time scales. For large systems, our data reveal phase coherence and a spontaneously broken symmetry, despite the statistical fluctuations.

Bose-Einstein condensation of photons in an optical microcavity.

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC)-the macroscopic ground-state accumulation of particles with integer spin (bosons) at low temperature and high density-has been observed in several physical systems, including cold atomic gases and solid-state quasiparticles. However, the most omnipresent Bose gas, blackbody radiation (radiation in thermal equilibrium with the cavity walls) does not show this phase transition. In such systems photons have a vanishing chemical potential, meaning that their number is not conserved when the temperature of the photon gas is varied; at low temperatures, photons disappear in the cavity walls instead of occupying the cavity ground state. Theoretical works have considered thermalization processes that conserve photon number (a prerequisite for BEC), involving Compton scattering with a gas of thermal electrons or photon-photon scattering in a nonlinear resonator configuration. Number-conserving thermalization was experimentally observed for a two-dimensional photon gas in a dye-filled optical microcavity, which acts as a 'white-wall' box. Here we report the observation of a Bose-Einstein condensate of photons in this system. The cavity mirrors provide both a confining potential and a non-vanishing effective photon mass, making the system formally equivalent to a two-dimensional gas of trapped, massive bosons. The photons thermalize to the temperature of the dye solution (room temperature) by multiple scattering with the dye molecules. Upon increasing the photon density, we observe the following BEC signatures: the photon energies have a Bose-Einstein distribution with a massively populated ground-state mode on top of a broad thermal wing; the phase transition occurs at the expected photon density and exhibits the predicted dependence on cavity geometry; and the ground-state mode emerges even for a spatially displaced pump spot. The prospects of the observed effects include studies of extremely weakly interacting low-dimensional Bose gases and new coherent ultraviolet sources.

Laser cooling by collisional redistribution of radiation.

The general idea that optical radiation may cool matter was put forward 80 years ago. Doppler cooling of dilute atomic gases is an extremely successful application of this concept. More recently, anti-Stokes cooling in multilevel systems has been explored, culminating in the optical refrigeration of solids. Collisional redistribution of radiation has been proposed as a different cooling mechanism for atomic two-level systems, although experimental investigations using moderate-density gases have not reached the cooling regime. Here we experimentally demonstrate laser cooling of an atomic gas based on collisional redistribution of radiation, using rubidium atoms in argon buffer gas at a pressure of 230 bar. The frequent collisions in the ultradense gas transiently shift a highly red-detuned laser beam (that is, one detuned to a much lower frequency) into resonance, whereas spontaneous decay occurs close to the unperturbed atomic resonance frequency. During each excitation cycle, kinetic energy of order k(B)T-that is, the thermal energy (k(B), Boltzmann's constant; T, temperature)-is extracted from the dense atomic sample. In a proof-of-principle experiment with a thermally non-isolated sample, we demonstrate relative cooling by 66 K. The cooled gas has a density more than ten orders of magnitude greater than the typical values used in Doppler-cooling experiments, and the cooling power reaches 87 mW. Future applications of the technique may include supercooling beyond the homogeneous nucleation temperature and optical chillers.

Observation of grand-canonical number statistics in a photon Bose-Einstein condensate.

We report measurements of particle number correlations and fluctuations of a photon Bose-Einstein condensate in a dye microcavity using a Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment. The photon gas is coupled to a reservoir of molecular excitations, which serve as both heat bath and particle reservoir to realize grand-canonical conditions. For large reservoirs, we observe strong number fluctuations of the order of the total particle number extending deep into the condensed phase. Our results demonstrate that Bose-Einstein condensation under grand-canonical ensemble conditions does not imply second-order coherence.

Kennard-Stepanov relation connecting absorption and emission spectra in an atomic gas.

The Kennard-Stepanov relation describes a thermodynamic, Boltzmann-type scaling between the absorption and emission spectral profiles of an absorber, which applies in many liquid state dye solutions as well as in semiconductor systems. Here we examine absorption and emission spectra of rubidium atoms in a dense argon buffer gas environment. We demonstrate that the Kennard-Stepanov relation between absorption and emission spectra is well fulfilled in the collisionally broadened atomic gas system. Our experimental findings are supported by a simple theoretical model.

Observation of nonlinear response and Onsager regression in a photon Bose-Einstein condensate.

The quantum regression theorem states that the correlations of a system at two different times are governed by the same equations of motion as the single-time averages. This provides a powerful framework for the investigation of the intrinsic microscopic behaviour of physical systems by studying their macroscopic response to a controlled external perturbation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that the two-time particle number correlations in a photon Bose-Einstein condensate inside a dye-filled microcavity exhibit the same dynamics as the response of the condensate to a sudden perturbation of the dye molecule bath. This confirms the regression theorem for a quantum gas, and, moreover, demonstrates it in an unconventional form where the perturbation acts on the bath and only the condensate response is monitored. For strong perturbations, we observe nonlinear relaxation dynamics which our microscopic theory relates to the equilibrium fluctuations, thereby extending the regression theorem beyond the regime of linear response.

Tuning the mobility of a driven Bose-Einstein condensate via diabatic Floquet bands.

We study the response of ultracold atoms to a weak force in the presence of a temporally strongly modulated optical lattice potential. It is experimentally demonstrated that the strong ac driving allows for a tailoring of the mobility of a dilute atomic Bose-Einstein condensate with the atoms moving ballistically either along or against the direction of the applied force. Our results are in agreement with a theoretical analysis of the Floquet spectrum of a model system, thus revealing the existence of diabatic Floquet bands in the atoms' band spectra and highlighting their role in the nonequilibrium transport of the atoms.

Quantum Rabi dynamics of trapped atoms far in the deep strong coupling regime.

The coupling of a two-level system with an electromagnetic field, whose fully quantized version is the quantum Rabi model, is among the central topics of quantum physics. When the coupling strength becomes large enough that the field mode frequency is reached, the deep strong coupling regime is approached, and excitations can be created from the vacuum. Here we demonstrate a periodic variant of the quantum Rabi model in which the two-level system is encoded in the Bloch band structure of cold rubidium atoms in optical potentials. With this method we achieve a Rabi coupling strength of 6.5 times the field mode frequency, which is far in the deep strong coupling regime, and observe a subcycle timescale raise in bosonic field mode excitations. In a measurement recorded in the basis of the coupling term of the quantum Rabi Hamiltonian, a freezing of dynamics is revealed for small frequency splittings of the two-level system, as expected when the coupling term dominates over all other energy scales, and a revival for larger splittings. Our work demonstrates a route to realize quantum-engineering applications in yet unexplored parameter regimes.

Statistical physics of Bose-Einstein-condensed light in a dye microcavity.

We theoretically analyze the temperature behavior of paraxial light in thermal equilibrium with a dye-filled optical microcavity. At low temperatures the photon gas undergoes Bose-Einstein condensation, and the photon number in the cavity ground state becomes macroscopic with respect to the total photon number. Owing to a grand-canonical excitation exchange between the photon gas and the dye molecule reservoir, a regime with unusually large fluctuations of the condensate number is predicted for this system that is not observed in present atomic physics Bose-Einstein condensation experiments.

Compressibility and the equation of state of an optical quantum gas in a box.

The compressibility of a medium, quantifying its response to mechanical perturbations, is a fundamental property determined by the equation of state. For gases of material particles, studies of the mechanical response are well established, in fields from classical thermodynamics to cold atomic quantum gases. We demonstrate a measurement of the compressibility of a two-dimensional quantum gas of light in a box potential and obtain the equation of state for the optical medium. The experiment was carried out in a nanostructured dye-filled optical microcavity. We observed signatures of Bose-Einstein condensation at high phase-space densities in the finite-size system. Upon entering the quantum degenerate regime, the measured density response to an external force sharply increases, hinting at the peculiar prediction of an infinite compressibility of the deeply degenerate Bose gas.

Klein tunneling of a quasirelativistic Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice.

A proof-of-principle experiment simulating effects predicted by relativistic wave equations with ultracold atoms in a bichromatic optical lattice that allows for a tailoring of the dispersion relation is reported. We observe the analog of Klein tunneling, the penetration of relativistic particles through a potential barrier without the exponential damping that is characteristic for nonrelativistic quantum tunneling. Both linear (relativistic) and quadratic (nonrelativistic) dispersion relations are investigated, and significant barrier transmission is observed only for the relativistic case.

Sapphire optical viewport for high pressure and temperature applications.

We describe the design of a soldered sapphire optical viewport, which is useful for spectroscopic applications of samples at high temperatures and high pressures. The sapphire window is bonded via active soldering to a metal flange with a structure of two c-shaped rings made of different metallic materials in between, so as to mitigate thermally induced stress. A spectroscopic cell equipped with two of the optical viewports has been successfully operated with alkali metals in a noble gas environment at temperatures in the range of 20-450 °C at noble gas pressures from 10-6 mbar to 330 bars. In the upper pressure range, we observe a leakage rate smaller than our readout accuracy of 30 mbar per day.

Observation of a non-Hermitian phase transition in an optical quantum gas.

Quantum gases of light, such as photon or polariton condensates in optical microcavities, are collective quantum systems enabling a tailoring of dissipation from, for example, cavity loss. This characteristic makes them a tool to study dissipative phases, an emerging subject in quantum many-body physics. We experimentally demonstrate a non-Hermitian phase transition of a photon Bose-Einstein condensate to a dissipative phase characterized by a biexponential decay of the condensate's second-order coherence. The phase transition occurs because of the emergence of an exceptional point in the quantum gas. Although Bose-Einstein condensation is usually connected to lasing by a smooth crossover, the observed phase transition separates the biexponential phase from both lasing and an intermediate, oscillatory condensate regime. Our approach can be used to study a wide class of dissipative quantum phases in topological or lattice systems.

Atomic Bloch-Zener oscillations and Stückelberg interferometry in optical lattices.

We report on experiments investigating quantum transport and band interferometry of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice with a two-band miniband structure, realized with a Fourier-synthesized optical lattice potential. Bloch-Zener oscillations, the coherent superposition of Bloch oscillations and Landau-Zener tunneling between the two bands, are observed. When the relative phase between paths in different bands is varied, an interference signal is observed, demonstrating the coherence of the dynamics in the miniband system. Measured fringe patterns of this Stückelberg interferometer allow us to interferometrically map out the band structure of the optical lattice over the full Brillouin zone.

Thermally condensing photons into a coherently split state of light.

The quantum state of light plays a crucial role in a wide range of fields, from quantum information science to precision measurements. Whereas complex quantum states can be created for electrons in solid-state materials through mere cooling, optical manipulation and control builds on nonthermodynamic methods. Using an optical dye microcavity, we show that photon wave packets can be split through thermalization within a potential with two minima subject to tunnel coupling. At room temperature, photons condense into a quantum-coherent bifurcated ground state. Fringe signals upon recombination show the relative coherence between the two wells, demonstrating a working interferometer with the nonunitary thermodynamic beam splitter. Our energetically driven optical-state preparation method provides a route for exploring correlated and entangled optical many-body states.

First-order spatial coherence measurements in a thermalized two-dimensional photonic quantum gas.

Phase transitions between different states of matter can profoundly modify the order in physical systems, with the emergence of ferromagnetic or topological order constituting important examples. Correlations allow the quantification of the degree of order and the classification of different phases. Here we report measurements of first-order spatial correlations in a harmonically trapped two-dimensional photon gas below, at and above the critical particle number for Bose-Einstein condensation, using interferometric measurements of the emission of a dye-filled optical microcavity. For the uncondensed gas, the transverse coherence decays on a length scale determined by the thermal de Broglie wavelength of the photons, which shows the expected scaling with temperature. At the onset of Bose-Einstein condensation, true long-range order emerges, and we observe quantum statistical effects as the thermal wave packets overlap. The excellent agreement with equilibrium Bose gas theory prompts microcavity photons as promising candidates for studies of critical scaling and universality in optical quantum gases.Phase transitions in quantum matter are related to correlation effects and they can change the ordering of material. Here the authors measure the first-order spatial correlation and the de Broglie wavelength for both thermal and condensed form of a photonic Bose gas in a dye-filled optical microcavity.

Real-space imaging of a topologically protected edge state with ultracold atoms in an amplitude-chirped optical lattice.

To describe a mobile defect in polyacetylene chains, Su, Schrieffer and Heeger formulated a model assuming two degenerate energy configurations that are characterized by two different topological phases. An immediate consequence was the emergence of a soliton-type edge state located at the boundary between two regions of different configurations. Besides giving first insights in the electrical properties of polyacetylene materials, interest in this effect also stems from its close connection to states with fractional charge from relativistic field theory. Here, using a one-dimensional optical lattice for cold rubidium atoms with a spatially chirped amplitude, we experimentally realize an interface between two spatial regions of different topological order in an atomic physics system. We directly observe atoms confined in the edge state at the intersection by optical real-space imaging and characterize the state as well as the size of the associated energy gap. Our findings hold prospects for the spectroscopy of surface states in topological matter and for the quantum simulation of interacting Dirac systems.

Experimental control of transport resonances in a coherent quantum rocking ratchet.

The ratchet phenomenon is a means to get directed transport without net forces. Originally conceived to rectify stochastic motion and describe operational principles of biological motors, the ratchet effect can be used to achieve controllable coherent quantum transport. This transport is an ingredient of several perspective quantum devices including atomic chips. Here we examine coherent transport of ultra-cold atoms in a rocking quantum ratchet. This is realized by loading a rubidium atomic Bose-Einstein condensate into a periodic optical potential subjected to a biharmonic temporal drive. The achieved long-time coherence allows us to resolve resonance enhancement of the atom transport induced by avoided crossings in the Floquet spectrum of the system. By tuning the strength of the temporal modulations, we observe a bifurcation of a single resonance into a doublet. Our measurements reveal the role of interactions among Floquet eigenstates for quantum ratchet transport.