We demonstrate electromagnetically-induced anomalous quantum dynamics of an exciton in a photonic band gap (PBG) - quantum well (QW) hetero-structure. Within the engineered electromagnetic vacuum of the PBG material, the exciton can propagate through the QW by the emission and re-absorption of virtual photons in addition to the conventional electronic hopping mechanism. When the exciton wavevector and recombination energy coincide nearly with a photonic band edge, the exciton kinetic energy is lowered by 1-10meV through coherent radiative hopping. This capture of the exciton by the photonic band edge is accompanied by strong electromagnetic dressing in which the exciton's renormalized effective mass is 4-5 orders of magnitude smaller than in the absence of the PBG environment. This dressed exciton exhibits a long radiative lifetime characteristic of a photon-atom bound state and is robust to phonon-assisted, re-combinative decay. By inheriting properties of the PBG electromagnetic vacuum, the bound electron-hole pair becomes a stable, ultra-mobile quantum excitation. Unlike traditional exciton-polariton modes created by placing a QW in a one-dimensional optical cavity, our PBG-QW excitons exhibit strong coupling to optical modes and retain a long lifetime. This is crucial for unambiguous observation of quantum coherence effects such as Bose-Einstein condensation. We present a model for the equilibrium quantum statistics of a condensate of repulsively interacting bosons in a two-dimensional trap. Particle correlations in the ground state are treated exactly, whereas interactions with excited particles are treated in a generalized Bogoliubov mean-field theory. This leads to a fundamental physical picture for condensation of interacting bosons through an anharmonic oscillator ground state coupled to excited Bogoliubov quasiparticles in which the quantum number statistics of condensate particles emerges self-consistently. Our anharmonic oscillator model for the exciton ground state manifold goes beyond the conceptual framework of traditional Bogoliubov theory. Below the Bose-Einstein condensation temperature, our model exhibits a crossover from particle bunching to Poissonian statistics and finally antibunching as temperature is lowered or as the trapping area is decreased. When applied to Bose condensation of long-lived dressed excitons in a photonic band gap material, our model suggests that this system may serve as a novel tunable source for non-classical states of light.

The emergence of many-body physical phenomena from the quantum mechanical properties of atoms can be studied using ultracold alkali gases. The ability to manipulate both Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases (DFGs) with designer potential energy landscapes, variable interaction strengths and out-of-equilibrium initial conditions provides the opportunity to investigate collective behaviour under diverse conditions. With an appropriately chosen wavelength, optical standing waves provide a lattice potential for one target species while ignoring another spectator species. A “tune-in” scheme provides an especially strong potential for the target and works best for Li-Na, Li-K, and K-Na mixtures, while a “tune-out” scheme zeros the potential for the spectator, and is pre- ferred for Li-Cs, K-Rb, Rb-Cs, K-Cs, and 39K-40K mixtures. Species-selective lattices provide unique environments for studying many-body behaviour by allowing for a phonon-like background, providing for effective mass tuning, and presenting opportunities for increasing the phase-space density of one species. Ferromagnetism is manifest in a two-component DFG when the energetically preferred many-body configuration segregates components. Within the local density approximation (LDA), the characteristic energies and the three-body loss rate of the system all give an observable signature of the crossover to this ferromagnetic state in a trapped DFG when interactions are increased beyond kF a(0) = 1.84. Numerical simulations of an extension to the LDA that account for magnetization gradients show that a hedgehog spin texture emerges as the lowest energy configuration in the ferromagnetic regime. Explorations of strong interactions in 40K constitute the first steps towards the realization of ferromagnetism in a trapped 40K gas. The many-body dynamics of a 87Rb BEC in a double well potential are driven by spatial phase gradients and depend on the character of the junction. The amplitude and frequency characteristics of the transport across a tunable barrier show a crossover between two paradigms of superfluidity: Josephson plasma oscillations emerge for high barriers, where transport is via tunnelling, while hydrodynamic behaviour dominates for lower barriers. The phase dependence of the many-body dynamics is also evident in the observation of macroscopic quantum self trapping. Gross-Pitaevskii calculations facilitate the interpretation of system dynamics, but do not describe the observed damping.

Aquesta tesi pretén obrir un nou focus de discussió amb relació al problema entre els marges de la ciència i la filosofia. Hem centrat aquesta discussió, però, en el debat entre Einstein i Bergson sobre el temps. La nostra tesi parteix de la convicció que la definició de temps no s'entén si no ens aproximem a l'obra d'un autor des de la dimensió específicament discursiva, atès que creiem que, en filosofia, la constitució de sentit depèn d'un procés discursiu i que és possible aprehendre una part important dels suports lingüístics d'aquesta activitat especulativa. Volem, doncs, comprendre quines operacions lingüístiques fan que es desenvolupi l'escriptura bergsoniana. També pretenem provar que els detractors de Bergson no han entès el marc discursiu que el text proposava i que la seva perspectiva era la d'un altre camp ideològic, el de la ciència, amb un univers lingüístic propi. Bergson critica el concepte de temps de la ciència, que la relativitat completa i culmina, perquè es contraposa a la duració segons la qual l'autor ens demana que pensem. En la ciència, el temps és posat al nivell de l'espai com una quarta dimensió de l'espai. El mètode científic falseja, segons Bergson, el real perquè només s'interessa per allò que pot ser traduït en conceptes. Per això, el nostre treball mostra com la ciència avança gràcies als conceptes més que no pas a les teories. Des d'aquesta visió epistemològica, podrem entendre quina és la "metafísica implícita" d'aquests conceptes. Per exemplificar-ho, ens fixarem en el concepte de simultaneïtat i veurem com el mètode científic pressuposa una realitat divisible en moments estables i autònoms. La nostra conclusió és que la discussió entre Einstein i Bergson cal entendre-la com una discussió entre posicions ontològiques i epistemològiques divergents. Einstein deixa de fer ciència quan utilitza el llenguatge verbal i prescindeix dels símbols. Ara bé, des del moment en què Einstein s'endinsa en aquest nou àmbit, els conceptes científics perden tota la garantia que tenien en el terreny dels símbols científics. Aleshores, la discussió sobre el temps passa a ser una discussió filosòfica. Per tant, Bergson s'equivoca quan pretén fer dir a Einstein el que Einstein no diu i quan discuteix qüestions científiques. Einstein l'erra en no voler admetre que fa filosofia i que, per tant, la seva definició de temps ha adquirit una nova perspectiva. / This thesis tries to open a new focus of discussion around the limits of science and philosophy. But we have centred this problem in the controversy between Einstein and Bergson about time. Our thesis maintains that a study from a discursive dimension it's necessary if we want to understand this controversy. We think that the constitution of sense depends of a discursive process in philosophy. Also, we think that it's possible to apprehend an important part of the linguistics supports of this speculative activity. We want to understand the linguistics operations that permit the development of the bergsonian writing and we try to prove that the Bergson's detractors don't understand the discursive background proposed by the text. Their perspective is the perspective of another ideological ambit: the science's ambit, whit an own linguistic universe. Bergson criticizes the science's concept of time, the theory of relativity represents the culmination of this conception and it's opposed to the Bergson's duration. The science's time is placed at the same level that the space like a fourth dimension of space. The scientific method adulterates, according to Bergson, the reality because it is interested in something that can be expressed by concepts. That's why this thesis explains that the science progresses thanks to the concepts more than to the theories. From this epistemological perspective, we can understand the "implicit metaphysic" of these concepts. In order to illustrate our thesis, we pay on attention to the concept of simultaneity and to the scientific method that presupposes a reality divisible in stable and autonomous moments. The conclusion is that it's necessary to understand the controversy between Einstein and Bergson like a debate between ontological and epistemological postures completely divergents. Einstein leaves the scientific ambit when he uses the verbal language and dispenses with the symbols. Nevertheless, when he utilizes the verbal language, the scientific concepts lose the guaranty that they had in the ambit of scientific ambit. Then, the controversy about time becomes a philosophical controversy.

The primary study of this thesis is the experimental realization of the non-equilibrium dynamics of a quantum inverted pendulum as examined in the collective spin dynamics of a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate. In order to compare experimental results with the simulation past the low depletion limit, current simulation techniques needed to be extended to model atomic loss. These extensions show that traditional measurements of the system evolution (e.g. measuring the mean and standard deviation of the evolving quantity) were insufficient in capturing the quantum nature of the evolution. It became necessary to look at higher order moments and cumulants of the distributions in order to capture the quantum fluctuations. Extending the implications of the loss model further, it is possible that the system evolves in a way previously unpredicted. Spin-mixing from a hyperbolic fixed point in the phase space and low noise atom counting form the core of the experiment to measure the evolution of the distributions of the spin populations. The evolution of the system is also compared to its classical analogue, the momentum-shortened inverted pendulum. The other experimental study in this thesis is mapping the mean-field phase space. The mean-field phase space consists of different energy contours that are divided into both phase-winding trajectories and closed orbits. These two regions are divided by a separatrix whose orbit has infinite period. Coherent states can be created fairly accurately within the phase space and allowed to evolve freely. The nature of their subsequent evolution provides the shape of the phase space orbit at that initial condition. From this analysis a prediction of the nature of the entire phase space is possible.

In this thesis we investigate the static, dynamic, and thermodynamic properties of atomic spin-1 Bose gases in external magnetic fields. At low magnetic fields the properties of single-component, or scalar condensates, are essentially unaffected but can become significantly altered for spinor Bose condensates as shown by our studies. We first study the Bose-Einstein condensation of trapped spin-1 Bose gases by employing the Hartree-Fock approximation and the two-fluid model within a mean field approximation. Our detailed investigation reveals that the ferromagnetically interacting spin-1 condensates exhibit triple condensations while the antiferromagnetically interacting ones show double condensations. The ground state structure of homogeneous and trapped spin-1 Bose condensates with ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions at zero temperature in magnetic fields are then investigated systematically. We further illuminate the important effect of quadratic Zeeman shift which causes a preferred occupation of the $|m_F=0 angle$ state through spin exchange collisions, $2|m_F=0 angle leftrightarrow |m_F=1 angle + |m_F=-1 angle$. We also present detailed studies of the off-equilibrium coherent dynamics of spin-1 Bose condensates in magnetic fields within the single spatial mode approximation. Dynamical instabilities of the off-equilibrium oscillations are shown to be responsible for the formation of multiple domains as recently observed in several $^{87}$Rb experiments. Finally, we discuss briefly excited condensate states, or soliton-like states, in cigar-shaped spin-1 Bose condensates with an effective quasi-1D description, using the developed nonpolynomial Schr"odinger equation.

In this dissertation, I have studied theoretical problems in statistical physics and electrodynamics of Bose particles, namely, mesoscopic effects in statistics of Bose- Einstein condensate (BEC) of atoms and electromagnetic waveguide effects of planar Bragg structures in Free Electron Lasers. A mesoscopic system of a trapped gas of Bose atoms is the most difficult for the theoretical analysis in quantum statistical physics since it cannot be studied by neither a quantum mechanics of the simple microscopic systems of one or very few atoms nor a standard statistical physics of the macroscopic systems that implies a thermodynamic limit. I present analytical formulas and numerical calculations for the moments and cumulants of BEC fluctuations in both ideal and weakly interacting gas. I analyze the universal scaling and structure of the BEC statistics in a mesoscopic ideal gas in the critical region. I present an exactly solvable Gaussian model of BEC in a degenerate interacting gas and its solution that confirms the universality and constraint-cut-off origin of the strongly non-Gaussian BEC statistics. I consider a two-energy-level trap with arbitrary degeneracy of an upper level and find an analytical solution for the condensate statistics in a mesoscopic ideal gas. I show how to model BEC in real traps by BEC in the two-level or three-level traps. I study wave propagation in the open oversized planar Bragg waveguides, in particular, in a planar metal waveguide with corrugation. I show that a step perturbation in a corrugation phase provides a high selectivity over transverse modes. I present a new Free Electron Laser (FEL) amplifier scheme, in which the radiation is guided by the planar Bragg structure with slightly corrugated walls and a sheet electron beam is traveling at a significant angle to the waveguide axis. By means of nonlinear analysis, I demonstrate that the proposed scheme provides an effective mode filtration and control over the structure of the output radiation and allows one to achieve amplification up to 30 dB in the existing FEL machines.

In this study we investigate the properties of trapped atoms subjected to rapid rotations. The study is divided into two distinct parts, one for fermions, another for bosons. In the case of the degenerate Fermi gas we explore the density structure of non-interacting cold atoms when they are rotated rapidly. On the other hand, for rapidly rotating two component Bose condensate, we search for new lattice structures in the presence of contact and dipolar interactions. First, the density structure of Fermi gases in a rotating trap is investigated. We focus on the anisotropic trap case, in which two distinct regimes, two and one dimensional regimes, depending on rotation frequency and anisotropy are observed. Two regimes can be illustrated by a simple description of maximum number of states between two Landau levels, which is strongly related to the dimensionality of the system. The regimes are separated from each other by a minimum point in this description. For small anisotropy values the density profiles show a step structure where each step is demonstrated by an elliptical plateau. Each plateau represents a Landau level with a constant density. The local density approximation describes the two dimensional regime with a perfect similarity in the structure of fermion density. The case for one dimensional regime is a little different from the two dimensional case. For large anisotropy values the Friedel oscillation is the dominant aspect of the density profiles. The density profiles show gaussian structure along the direction of strong trapping, and a semicircular form with prominent oscillations along the weak confining direction. Again, the system is nicely described by local density approximation in this regime. A smooth crossover between two regimes is observed, with a switching from a step structure profile to a soft edge transition with Friedel oscillations. At finite temperatures, the step structures are smeared out in two dimension. In one dimensional regime the Friedel oscillations are cleaned as soon as the temperature is turned on. The second part of the study is devoted to the investigation of different lattice structures in two component Bose condensates subjected to very fast rotation, this time in the presence of interactions. We explore the existence of new vortex lattice structures for dipolar two component condensates scanning a wide range of interaction strengths. We introduce a phase diagram as a function of intra and inter-component interactions showing different type of vortex lattice structures. New types of lattice structures, overlapped square and overlapped rectangular, emerge as a result of dipolar interactions and s-wave interaction for a two component condensate. The region where the attractive inter-component interactions dominate the repulsive interactions, the overlapped lattices are formed. The intra-component interactions, which defines the behavior of each component inside, result in different type of lattices by changing the strength of interactions. Two different limits of phase diagram reproduce the results of ordinary two component and dipolar one component Bose condensates. The results of calculation are in agreement with the results of previous studies for two regimes.

I) Dans notre travail sur les condensats, souvent motivé par des expériences, nous nous sommes intéressés à deux aspects. Le premier lié à la cohérence de phase du condensat et le deuxième lié au caractère multimode du champ atomique lorsque la température du système est non nulle. Nous avons étudié l'effet des pertes de particules sur le brouillage et les résurgences de phase par la méthode des fonctions d'onde Monte-Carlo. Nous avons étudié la dynamique spatiale et de phase dans un mélange de deux condensats par des méthodes analytiques et numériques à l'aide de l'équation de Gross-Pitaevskii. Nous avons proposé et mis en oeuvre une méthode stochastique pour échantillonner la distribution de Wigner d'équilibre d'un champ atomique à une température non nulle dans le cadre de l'approximation de Bogoliubov; ceci peut servir de point de départ pour une évolution dynamique de type champ classique qui, elle, va au-delà de l'approche de Bogoliubov. Par des simulations 3D de champ classique, nous avons ainsi montré la formation d'un réseau de vortex dans un condensat tournant, sans l'introduction de termes d'amortissement dans l'équation de Schrodinger non linéaire.<br /><br /><br />II) Selon la méthode actuellement utilisée, l'hélium 3 est pompé par échange de métastabilité à faible pression (< 1mbar) ce qui nécessite un phase<br />délicate de compression sans perte de polarisation avant que le gaz puisse être utilisé pour l'imagerie.<br />Par une étude expérimentale et théorique systématique, nous avons montré qu'effectuer le pompage en présence d'un champ magnétique fort, de 1.5 Tesla, permet de supprimer des canaux de relaxation de la polarisation nucléaire et d'étendre ainsi le domaine d'applicabilité du pompage de l'hélium par échange de métastabilité à des pressions presque 100 fois plus élevées que celles usuelles, ce qui devrait simplifier considérablement l'étape de compression du gaz.

Reproduction de : Thèse de doctorat : Lasers, Molécules, Rayonnement atmosphérique : Lille 1 : 2004. / N° d'ordre (Lille 1) : 3554. Titre provenant de la page de titre du document numérisé. Bibliogr. p. 185-187.

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