Cited by 3.9kOpen Access
Harvard University
Publishes on Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates, Quantum optics and atomic interactions, Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research. 64 papers and 8.7k citations.
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We show how the combination of electromagnetically induced transparency based nonlinear optics and cold atom technology, under conditions of ultraslow light propagation, allows nonlinear processes at energies of a few photons per atomic cross section.
We have used an extension of our slow light technique to provide a method for inducing small density defects in a Bose-Einstein condensate. These sub- resolution, micrometer-sized defects evolve into large-amplitude sound waves. We present an experimental observation and theoretical investigation of the resulting breakdown of superfluidity, and we observe directly the decay of the narrow density defects into solitons, the onset of the "snake" instability, and the subsequent nucleation of vortices.