Felicidades a la nueva graduada de doctorado del ICFO

Felicitamos la Dra. Natalia Domingues Alves que hoy ha defendido su tesis en el auditorio del ICFO.

La Dra. Domingues Alves obtuvo su máster de Física Atómica y Molecular por la Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, en Brazil. Se unió como estudiante de doctorado en el grupo de investigación de Atomic Quantum Optics en ICFO dirigido por el profesor ICREA Dr Morgan Mitchell. La tesis de la Dra. Domingues Alves titulada ‘Single-atom motional dynamics in an optical dipole trap’ fue supervisada por el profesor ICREA Dr Morgan Mitchell.

RESUMEN:

These thesis studies, using simulation and experiment, the motional dynamics of a single atom in an optical dipole trap. The optical dipole trap we study is a single-beam, red-detuned, far-off-resonance trap (FORT). This FORT is located at the centre of an arrangement of four high-NA lenses in the "Maltese cross'' geometry, which facilitates measurements based on atomic fluorescence.

We make a detailed study, combining simulation with experimental measurements, of the temperature of the atom in this system. We note reasons why a single-temperature description could fail to describe the motional statistics of the atom in the trap.

We then study the sensitivity of an established method, the release-and-recapture, to a possible anisotropic temperature distribution of the atom.

We also measure the optical extinction produced by the atom, from which we extract a lower bound on the strength of interaction.

Finally, we show with simulation results and experiments, how parametric excitation of the atom in the FORT can be used to manipulate its phase-space distribution, which can lead to an effective decrease or increase of the atom's kinetic energy.

Comité de Tesis:

Prof. Dr. Hugues de Riedmatten, ICFO

Prof. Dr. Axel Kuhn, University of Oxford

Dr. Raul Celistrino Teixeira, Universidade Federal de São Carlos