DressingRubidiumAtomsWithLaserLight

Neutral atoms, having no net electric charge, usually don't act very dramatically around a magnetic field. But by “dressing up” a Bose-Einstein

condensate of rubidium atoms – applying two beams of laser light, thus giving the atoms an effective directional tendency, or vector potential --

PFC researchers caused the ultracold atoms to undergo a startling transformation. They forced the cloud of neutral atoms to act like point-like

charged particles that can undergo merry-go-round-like cyclotron motions just as electrons do when subjected to a suitable magnetic field. This

extreme makeover technique for ultracold atoms promises to give physicists clues on how to achieve an exotic form of computation that would

rely upon special fractionally charged particles dancing around on a surface. For a more detailed description, see

http://pfc.umd.edu/news/dressedrubidium.html.

RESEARCH NEWS FROM THE PFC AT JQIY.-J. Lin, R.L. Compton, A.R. Perry, W.D. Phillips,

J.V. Porto and I.B. Spielman

" A Bose-Einstein condensate in a

uniform light-induced vector

potential.” J.-Y. Lin et al, Physical

Review Letters 102, 130401 (2009).“G. Juzeliūnas, "Viewpoint: Artificial

magnetism for ultracold atoms,"

Physics 2, 25 (2009).