Thursday 27th June 2013
	Chair: Guglielmo Tino
09:00-10:00	PT: Quantum Control and the Inter-Conversion of Light and Matter   Lene Vestergaard Hau (Harvard University)
	In our experiments, we slow, stop, and extinguish light pulses in a Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) of ultra-cold atoms. An extinguished light pulse can subsequently be brought back into existence in another condensate in a separate location. The information carried by the light pulse is transferred from the first to the second BEC by converting the light pulse into a travelling matter wave, a small atom pulse that is a perfect matter copy of the extinguished light pulse. After the matter copy enters the second BEC, phase locking induced by the presence of this condensate helps restore the original light pulse. While the matter copy is traveling between the two BECs, it can be trapped for extended time scales and also reshaped – sculpted - in whatever form required. The induced changes will then be present in the revived light pulse. The experiments allow unprecedented control over quantum states, and the work has important applications in coherent optical and quantum information processing. Very large optical nonlinearities can be induced by injecting several light pulses and converting them to matter. By bringing the matter copies into contact, non-linear effects can be achieved that are many orders of magnitude larger than the non-linearities that can be achieved with photons alone. In other experiments, we merge cold-atoms physics with nanoscale technology and demonstrate physics in action in a whole new parameter regime. The observations pave the way for creation of novel states of cold atomic matter.
	Session 6a: T8 Ultrafast dynamics and attosecond physics / T10 Strong fields   Chair: Lars Bojer Madsen
10:30-11:00	IT: Plasmas Mirrors: the physics of specular reflection at ultrahigh laser intensities   Fabien Quéré (IRAMIS-SPAM CEA Saclay)
	When focused on a solid target, an intense fs laser pulse creates a dense plasma with a very sharp interface, which specularly reflects the incident beam. This high-intensity specular reflection involves a rich physics, which leads to variety of applications, from ultrafast optical switches for temporal contrast improvement, to the generation of attosecond light pulses. The coherent dynamics of plasma mirrors can be controlled through the spatio-temporal phase of the laser field.
11:00-11:30	IT: Strong-field ionization of light atoms   Alexey Grum-Grzhimailo (Moscow State University)
	Strong-field ionization by infrared and optical femtosecond laser pulses is a challenge for ab initio calculations. Results of recent pioneering experiments with atomic hydrogen and lithium are explained by interpreting numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation.
11:30-12:00	IT: Realization of an atomic inner-shell x-ray laser at the LCLS   Nina Rohringer (Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL))
	X-ray free-electron lasers with their unprecedented peak intensities open pathways for exploring stimulated emission on bound-bound transitions in the x-ray region. We present results on saturated amplification on the 1s-2p transition at 849 eV (1.46 nm) in Neon. Thereby the incoherent free-electron laser radiation is converted into transform limited pulses of fs pulse duration. An extension of the x-ray laser scheme to molecules will be discussed.
12:00-12:30	IT: High Harmonic Generation from Relativistically Oscillating Plasmas   Matthew Zepf (Queen's University Belfast)
	Intense laser radiation interacting with dense targets lead to relativistic surface oscillations. The relativistic non-linearity is periodic with the laser frequency and leads to copious emission of high harmonics extending into the XUV and X-ray spectral regions. This method is ideally suited to converting intense lasers to ultra-intense attosecond pulses. Methods for the control of the plasma surface interactions and latest experimental results will be discussed.
	Session 6b: T16 Atom interferometry and atomic clocks   Chair: Jan Arlt
10:30-11:00	IT: Coherent interaction of photons with molecules and molecular clusters: quantum delocalization and measurement-induced gratings   Markus Arndt (University of Vienna)
	We discuss a new series of matter wave experiments at the University of Vienna which exploit the coherent interaction of light and matter to realize de Broglie interferometers for mesoscopic particles. Coherent light is the crucial element in preparing and probing the non-classical translational evolution of molecules – both in space and in time. We explore the influence of molecular mass and complexity on the quantum delocalized state, new tests of the quantum superposition principle of mesoscopic objects and new avenues to molecule metrology.
11:00-11:30	IT: Matter-wave clocks, gravitational redshift, and time   Holger Müller (University of California)
	The phase of a matter wave is proportional to the proper time experienced by the particle. This key principle of relativistic quantum mechanics has allowed us to perform tests of general relativity that yield the most sensitive current bounds on parameters describing equivalence principle violations in the Standard Model Extension. The bounds can be further sharpened by taking into account the composition of nuclear matter and the kinetic energy of protons and neutrons in nuclei. We have also built a rest-mass clock which uses a single particle as a reference, combining a Ramsey-Borde atom interferometer with a femtosecond optical frequency comb. The clock has an accuracy and stability of 4×10-9. It allows accurate measurement of microscopic masses in the proposed revision to SI units. Together with the Avogadro project, it yields calibrated kilograms. We will discuss future experiments testing the equivalence principle with dual-species interferometry, the gravitostatic Aharonov-Bohm experiment, and demonstrate the effects of gravity on free electrons and even positrons by measuring the gravitational redshift of a proposed electron rest-mass clock.
11:30-12:00	IT: Detection of the He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase by atom interferometry   Jacques Vigué (Université Paul Sabatier)
	The He-McKellar-Wilkens phase belongs to the same family asthe Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher topological phases. Using our separated-arm lithium-atom interferometer, we have succeeded to measure this phase and to prove its independence with the atom velocity. This phase appears when an electric dipole propagates in a transverse magnetic field and, in order to induce opposite electric dipoles on the two interferometer arms, we apply opposite electric fields.
12:00-12:30	IT: An atomic clock with a nuclear transition   Thorsten Schumm (Vienna University of Technology)
	The radioisotope 229Thorium shows a remarkably low-energy excited (isomer) state of the nucleus, which may be accessible to laser manipulation, creating a bridge between atomic and nuclear physics. We will discuss the possibility of constructing a “nuclear atomic clock” based on 229Th implanted into a solid-state crystal matrix and estimate the projected clock performance.