Exploration of Photon Echo in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Abstract

A whole new area of experimental physics was opened up with the successful realization of the BEC in 1995. A BEC can be utilized to perform experiments where quantum phenomena can be seen on a macroscopic scale. In our experiment, we perform coherent manipulation of the hyperfine levels of Rb87 atoms in a BEC. We are, therefore, working with a macroscopic quantum two-level system. This allows us to test some of the fundamental concepts of atomic physics and laser spectroscopy. The aim of this experiment is to observe the recovery of inhomogeneous dephasing that each individual atom experiences in the form of a photon echo. This thesis will briefly review the process of creating a BEC and then transition into how one can utilize microwave spectroscopy and off-resonance lasers to manipulate a two-level system, all to realize a photon echo phenomena on a macroscopic scale. The setup of the lab will be discussed and how it was implemented in the experiment for data acquisition. Lastly, the results of the experiment will be put forward.