xvi, 119 p. ; ill. (some col.) A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation describes the development of an apparatus that can accommodate many atom-optics experiments, as well as an experimental demonstration of an optical one-way barrier for neutral atoms. The first part of this dissertation describes in detail the design and implementation of our apparatus. The experiment setup consists of optical systems, vacuum systems, imaging systems, and the related electronics. It is designed to be versatile enough for many cold-atom experiments, including the demonstration of an optical one-way barrier for neutral atoms, quantum measurement on the single-atom level, and the study of quantum chaos using Bose-Einstein condensates. The second part of this thesis presents the experimental study of an optical one-way barrier for neutral atoms. We demonstrated an asymmetric optical potential barrier for ultracold 87 Rb atoms. The atoms are confined in a far-detuned dipole trap consisting of a single focused Gaussian beam from a fiber laser. The optical one-way barrier consists of two focused laser beams oriented nearly normal to the dipole-trap axis and tuned near the 87 Rb D 2 transition. The first beam (main barrier beam) is tuned to work as either a potential well or barrier, depending on the state of the incident atoms. The second beam (repumping barrier beam) pumps the atoms to the barrier state on the reflecting side. We investigated the transmission and reflection dynamics of the atoms in the presence of the one-way barrier, and we verified its capability for increasing the phase-space density of a sample of neutral atoms using the one-way barrier. Our experiment is a realization of Maxwell's demon and has important implications for cooling atoms and molecules not susceptible to the standard laser-cooling techniques. / Adviser: Daniel A. Steck

This thesis presents the experimental study on the two-spin component, strongly interacting 6 Li Fermi gases in 3D and 1D traps. The interaction strength is tuned from the molecular BEC regime to the BCS regime using a Feshbach resonance. The trap dimension can be tuned from 3D to 1D with the implementation of optical lattice. The evaporation of imbalanced Fermi gases in 3D trap is studied. The anisotropic and fast evaporation is the cause of the deformation observed in the 2006 Rice experiment. In a balanced Fermi system, the fraction of correlated states is measured as a function of interaction and temperature. At unitarity, the fraction of correlated states is ∼85% and exists above T c . The one-body-like photoexcitation rate can be related to the contact quantity. Lastly, the spin-imbalance in a one-dimensional Fermi gas is studied. The 1D phase diagram is mapped out. The result agrees well with the 1D theory, in which the partially polarized regime is predicted to be a FFLO phase, an exotic superfluid with pairs carrying finite center-of-mass momentum proposed almost 50 years ago.

xvi, 176 p. : ill. (some col.) / The research presented in this dissertation aims to contribute to the field of atom optics via the implementation and demonstration of an all-optical one-way barrier for 87 Rb atoms--a novel tool for controlling atomic motion. This barrier--a type of atomic turnstile--transmits atoms traveling in one direction but hinders their passage in the other direction. We create the barrier with two laser beams, generating its unidirectional behavior by exploiting the two hyperfine ground states of 87 Rb. In particular, we judiciously choose the frequency of one beam to present a potential well to atoms in one ground state (the transmitting state) and a potential barrier to atoms in the other state (the reflecting state). The second beam optically pumps the atoms from the transmitting state to the reflecting state. A significant component of the experimental work presented here involves generating ultra-cold rubidium atoms for demonstrating the one-way barrier. To this end, we have designed and constructed a sophisticated 87 Rb cooling and trapping apparatus. This apparatus comprises an extensive ultra-high vacuum system, four home-built, frequency-stabilized diode laser systems, a high-power Yb:fiber laser, a multitude of supporting optics, and substantial timing and control electronics. This system allows us to cool and trap rubidium atoms at a temperature of about 30 μK. The results presented in this dissertation are summarized as follows. We successfully implemented a one-way barrier for neutral atoms and demonstrated its asymmetric nature. We used this new tool to compress the phase-space volume of an atomic sample and examined its significance as a physical realization of Maxwell's demon. We also demonstrated the robustness of the barrier's functionality to variations in several important experimental parameters. Lastly, we demonstrated the barrier's ability to cool an atomic sample, substantiating its potential application as a new cooling tool. This dissertation includes previously published coauthored material. / Committee in charge: Dr. Hailin Wang, Chair; Dr. Daniel A. Steck, Research Advisor; Dr. Jens U. Nockel; Dr. David M. Strom; Dr. Jeffrey A. Cina

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This thesis describes the measurements of collective effects in strongly coupled ultra-cold neutral plasmas (UNPs). It shows the implementation of experimental techniques that perturb either the density or velocity distribution of the plasma and it describes the subsequent excitation, observation and analysis of the aforementioned collective phenomena. UNPs are interesting in that they display physics of strongly coupled systems. For most plasma systems, collective effects are well described with classical hydrodynamic or kinetic descriptions. However, for strongly coupled systems, the Coulomb interaction energy between nearest neighbors exceeds the kinetic energy, and these descriptions must be modified as the plasma crosses over from a gas-like to liquid-like behavior. Strongly coupling can be found in exotic plasma systems found astrophysics, dusty plasmas, non-neutral trapped ion plasmas, intense-laser/matter interactions and inertial confinement fusion experiments. Compared to other strongly coupled plasmas, UNPs are ideal for studying collective effects in this regime since they have lower timescales, precisely controllable initial conditions and non-invasive diagnostics. Previous studies of UNPs concentrated on plasma expansion dynamics and some collective effects such as disorder induced heating, but little work had been done in relaxation or collision rates and collective modes in UNPs. This thesis presents a method for measuring collision rates by perturbing the velocity distribution of the plasma, observing plasma relaxation and measuring the relaxation rate. It also presents a new technique for observing collective modes in the plasma by perturbing the initial density of the plasma and how this results in the excitation of ion acoustic waves and a measurement of its dispersion relation. Finally, this thesis presents how this last technique can be used to create a gap in the center of the plasma and how this leads to hole propagation and plasma streaming and presents a characterization of both phenomena. The result of these experiments will be valuable for predicting the behavior of collective effects in other strongly coupled plasmas and for comparison with theories that describe them.

Ultracold Fermi gas is an exciting field benefiting from atomic physics, optical physics and condensed matter physics. It covers many aspects of quantum mechanics. Here I introduce some of my work during my graduate study. We proposed an optical spectroscopic method based on electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) as a generic probing tool that provides valuable insights into the nature of Fermi paring in ultracold Fermi gases of two hyperfine states. This technique has the capability of allowing spectroscopic response to be determined in a nearly non-destructive manner and the whole spectrum may be obtained by scanning the probe laser frequency faster than the lifetime of the sample without re-preparing the atomic sample repeatedly. Both quasiparticle picture and pseudogap picture are constructed to facilitate the physical explanation of the pairing signature in the EIT spectra. Motivated by the prospect of realizing a Fermi gas of 40 K atoms with a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field, we investigated theoretically BEC-HCS crossover physics in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a system of two-component Fermi gas with and without a Zeeman field that breaks the population balance. A new bound state (Rashba pair) emerges because of the spin-orbit interaction. We studied the properties of Rashba pairs using a standard pair fluctuation theory. As the two-fold spin degeneracy is lifted by spin-orbit interaction, bound pairs with mixed singlet and triplet pairings (referred to as rashbons) emerge, leading to an anisotropic superfluid. We discussed in detail the experimental signatures for observing the condensation of Rashba pairs by calculating various physical observables which characterize the properties of the system and can be measured in experiment. The role of impurities as experimental probes in the detection of quantum material properties is well appreciated. Here we studied the effect of a single classical impurity in trapped ultracold Fermi superfluids. Although a non-magnetic impurity does not change macroscopic properties of s-wave Fermi superfluids, depending on its shape and strength, a magnetic impurity can induce single or multiple mid-gap bound states. The multiple mid-gap states could coincide with the development of a Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) phase within the superfluid. As an analog of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, we proposed a modified radio frequency spectroscopic method to measure the focal density of states which can be employed to detect these states and other quantum phases of cold atoms. A key result of our self consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes calculations is that a magnetic impurity can controllably induce an FFLO state at currently accessible experimental parameters.