Ultra-cold collisions and experiments with gases in the quantum and non-quantum regime

Abstract

Following our present line of research we will study different aspects of ultra cold atomic collisions for a sample of atoms held in a magneto optical trap two distinct species must also be simultaneously trapped. The main collision process to be investigated involves hyperfine change collisions using the sudden change of intensity technique and photo association for homo and heteronuclear collision. For sodium atoms, studies of photo associative ionization in the presence of a third body (a second cold alkali atom different from Na) should result in the observation of novel effects. A second part of the program consists to obtain a Bose-condensate sample of Na atom. Investigation of cold collisions and thermodynamic effects (as transport and thermal properties) will be studied in this quantum gas sample. The study of optically modifying the scattering length and its consequences on the collision properties of the system will be included in this program. (AU)