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Quantum physics

Atoms in chequerboard order

Nature volume 464, pages 1289–1290 (2010)Cite this article

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Bose–Einstein condensates are ideal tools with which exotic phenomena can be investigated. The hitherto-unrealized Dicke quantum phase transition has now been observed with one such system in an optical cavity.

In 1954, Robert H. Dicke at Princeton University, inspired by his work on coherent microwave radiation from ammonia molecules, conceived a fascinating phenomenon1. He predicted that a dense, extremely elongated cloud of atoms, once excited by light, could decay radiatively by spontaneously emitting photons along the cloud's long axis, much like a firecracker or sparkler ignited at both ends. Dicke named this effect superradiance — 'super' because the collectively emitted photons would form electromagnetic waves that are coherent (the waves' peaks and troughs line up), in contrast to photons emitted by independently decaying atoms, which generally form incoherent waves.

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Figure 1: Chequerboard ordering of atoms in an optical cavity.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cheng Chin and Nathan Gemelke are at the James Franck Institute and in the Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. cchin@uchicago.edu; ngemelke@uchicago.edu,

    Cheng Chin & Nathan Gemelke

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  1. Cheng Chin
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  2. Nathan Gemelke
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Chin, C., Gemelke, N. Atoms in chequerboard order. Nature 464, 1289–1290 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/4641289a

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