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Atomic Physics Seminars for Spring 2008

Monday, January 21, 2008 Joseph R. Manson [Host: Vittorio Celli]
3:30 PM, Room 204 Clemson University
Physics Building “Scattering of Small Molecules by Surfaces”
ABSTRACT:
 Scattering molecules from surfaces is one method of obtaining information about specific aspects of the molecule-surface interaction potential and about the exchange of energy between the various molecular degrees of freedom and the modes of surface excitation. Scattering experiments can also probe surface trapping and sticking and the initial precursors to chemical reactions. Many such experiments have been carried out using molecules with masses significantly heavier than hydrogen for which the translational and rotational degrees of freedom during the collision process can be approximated by classical mechanics. Described in this talk is a mixed classical-quantum theory of molecule-surface scattering that treats the translational and rotational motion of the molecule and the multiphonon excitation of the surface with classical mechanics while the internal molecular vibrational degrees of freedom are treated with quantum mechanics. Comparisons of calculations with recent experiments show that such a theory can be useful in explaining observed scattered angular distributions, translational energy-resolved spectra, energy transfer to molecular rotational modes, and excitation probabilities for internal vibrational modes.

Monday, January 28, 2008 Jay Lowell [Host: Cass Sackett]
3:30 PM, Room 204 DARPA
Physics Building “An A to Z of Applied Physics Programs at DARPA”

Monday, February 4, 2008 RESERVED
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, February 11, 2008 Reserved
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, February 18, 2008 Qudsia Quraishi [Host: Olivier Pfister]
3:30 PM, Room 204 Univ. of Colorado and NIST, Boulder
Physics Building “Optical frequency combs for stable radiation in the microwave, terahertz ”
ABSTRACT:
 Optical frequency combs (OFC) have dramatically changed the paradigm for precision optical frequency measurements. Modern precision measurements rely upon the comb to act as a frequency gear-work to bridge a reference frequency (microwave or optical) to another frequency of interest, which can result in 17 digits of measurement accuracy. For such frequency comparisons, which often span hundreds of nanometers, the noise contribution of the comb itself must be well understood. Additionally, beyond precision optical measurements, recent work has shown that very low phase noise microwave signals may also be extracted from OFCs. The limits to the combs' performance in the optical and microwave domains is a matter of current inquiry. In my talk, I will discuss noise properties associated with signals extracted from OFCs. In the case of the combs' optical signals, I will discuss the scaling of phase noise of OFCs across 240 nanometers of the combs' optical bandwidth. In the case of the combs microwave signals, I will discuss efforts currently underway to achieve very low phase noise signals, in the x-band range of 10 GHz, which exceed the performance of state-of-the-art microwave sources. Finally, I will discuss the integration of the comb with the terahertz domain to generate broadly tunable and narrow linewidth radiation in the terahertz regime.

Monday, February 25, 2008 Available
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, March 10, 2008 RESERVED
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, March 17, 2008 RESERVED
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, March 24, 2008 Available
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, April 7, 2008 Matt Pysher [Host: Cass Sackett]
3:30 PM, Room 204 University of Virginia
Physics Building “Continuous-Variable Entanglement with Concurrent Nonlinearities”

Monday, April 14, 2008 John Burke [Host: Cass Sackett]
3:30 PM, Room 204 University of Virginia
Physics Building “Phase Gradient Effects in a BEC Interferometer”

Monday, April 21, 2008 RESERVED
3:30 PM, Room 204
Physics Building

Monday, April 28, 2008 Josh Gurian [Host: Cass Sackett]
3:00 PM, Room 204
Note Special Time
University of Virginia
Physics Building “Multiphoton microwave ionization of Li Rydberg atoms”

Monday, May 5, 2008 Seth Aubin [Host: Cass Sackett]
3:30 PM, Room 204 William and Mary
Physics Building “Ultra-cold quantum gases for many-body physics and interferometry”
ABSTRACT:
 I will present the design and construction of an apparatus for generating an ultra-cold Bose-Fermi mixture of 87Rb and 40K on an atom chip at the College of William and Mary. In the near term, the apparatus will support experiments on degenerate fermion interferometry. In the long term, we are directing our efforts towards producing an ultra-cold gas of polar KRb molecules for investigating novel types of bosonic and fermionic superfluidity


To add a speaker, send an email to cas8m@Virginia.EDU. Include the seminar type (e.g. Atomic Physics Seminars), date, name of the speaker, title of talk, and an abstract (if available). [Please send a copy of the email to phys-seminars@Virginia.EDU.]


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