Abstract:
In the first part of the talk I will introduce the technique of scanning electron microscopy as a novel way to image and manipulate clouds of ultracold atoms, characterized by high spatial and temporal resolution and by single atom sensitivity. We employ this technique to measure the temporal pair correlation function and the equations of state of trapped gases of bosons in different dimensionalities and for investigation on the dissipative interaction of the BEC with the electronic probe.
In the second part of the talk I will propose a novel and robust technique to realize a beam splitter for trapped Bose-Einstein condensates. The scheme relies on the possibility of producing different potentials simultaneously for two internal atomic states. The atoms are coherently transferred, via a Rabi switch between two long-lived internal states, from a single well potential to a double-well. We present numerical simulations supporting our proposal and confirming excellent efficiency and fidelity of the transfer process. We discuss the experimental implementation by suggesting state-selective microwave potentials as an ideal tool to be exploited for magnetically trapped atoms.