Third Party Funds Group - Sub project
Start date : 01.01.2021
End date : 31.12.2024
We will study the mechanical dynamics of cold ytterbium atoms inside a high-finesse optical resonator and the concomitant steady-state and transient characteristics of the light emission from the resonator. The project will bring together the physics of cold-atom lasing with the physics of collective opto-mechanical atom-mode interaction. We will investigate spatial self-organization of the atoms and ways to control it, with respect to the conditions under which continuous lasing may be realized. As a more long-term perspective, we aim at demonstrating laser action in combination with self-ordering and/or cooling of the atoms, a collective process with several intrinsic non-linearities and feedback loops, expected to display a rich spectrum of phenomena.