Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Bose-Einstein condensation

Breaking up a superfluid

Nature volume 415, pages 25–26 (2002)Cite this article

Ultracold atoms held in a three-dimensional pattern by a web of light beams can now be switched from a superfluid to an insulating state. This achievement may be useful for performing quantum computations.

The experiment by Greiner et al.1 represents a landmark in the history of Bose–Einstein condensed gases, for several reasons. The creation of a Bose–Einstein condensed gas of rubidium atoms in a magnetic trap is challenging in itself, and the first researchers2 to do so in 1995 were recently rewarded with the 2001 Nobel prize for physics. Several laboratories around the world can now create Bose–Einstein condensates almost routinely, but Greiner et al.1 also needed a periodic energy landscape for the atoms. This is most easily achieved using the electric field of a laser beam or, more precisely, several criss-crossing laser beams, which create a light-wave interference pattern known as an optical lattice.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A quantum phase transition in an ultracold gas.

References

  1. Greiner, M., Mandel, O., Esslinger, T., Hänsch, T. W. & Bloch, I. Nature 415, 39–44 (2002).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson, M. H., Ensher, J. R., Matthews, M. R., Wieman, C. E. & Cornell, E. A. Science 269, 198–201 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sachdev, S. Quantum Phase Transitions (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001).

  4. Fisher, M. P. A., Weichman, P. B., Grinstein, G. & Fisher, D. S. Phys. Rev. B 40, 546–570 (1989).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Jaksch, D., Bruder, C., Cirac, J. I., Gardiner, C. W. & Zoller, P. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3108–3111 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Jaksch, D., Briegel, H.-J, Cirac, J. I., Gardiner, C. W. & Zoller, P. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1975–1978 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, Utrecht, 3584 CE, The Netherlands

    Henk T. C. Stoof

Authors
  1. Henk T. C. Stoof
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henk T. C. Stoof.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stoof, H. Breaking up a superfluid. Nature 415, 25–26 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/415025a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/415025a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing