JQI Seminar: Cheng Chin

Title: Many-Body Chemistry: Phase Coherence and Entanglement in Matter-Wave Reactions
Abstract: Chemical reactions are ordinarily viewed as incoherent processes governed by statistical ensembles and thermodynamics. When atoms and molecules become quantum degenerate, however, they can form coherent matter waves, opening a fundamentally different regime of chemistry in which reactions become coherent nonlinear processes. In this regime, the matter-wave fields of reactants and products are expected to exhibit phase matching, closely analogous to nonlinear optical frequency conversion.

Here we observe phase-coherent reaction dynamics between Bose-condensed atoms and molecules near a Feshbach resonance. Using matter-wave diffraction in optical lattices, we directly probe the spatial coherence of both atomic and molecular condensates. We observe phase doubling when two atomic matter waves combine to form a molecular wave: the matter-wave analogue of optical frequency doubling. Remarkably, the diffraction patterns also reveal two-atom entanglement generated by the reaction.

*You will need to bring your cell phone, so you can sign in using the QR code outside of ATL 2400.  You will need to submit your first and last name, email, and affiliation on the form by 11:15am to be able to get lunch after the seminar.  Lunch is first come, first served.*

At 4pm, there will be a tea in ATL 2117 for our speaker and students/postdocs - this is a chance to ask questions directly to our speaker. Refreshments will be served.