Latest News
For the starting EPSRC funded project Supersolids and quantum droplets via light mediated interactions we are looking for two motivated postdoctoral researchers with a start date from February 2026.
Informal enquiries to Thorsten Ackemann thorsten.ackemann@strath.ac.uk or Elmar Haller Elmar Haller elmar.haller@strath.ac.uk for the experimental position, and Peter Kirton peter.kirton@strath.ac.uk or Gordon Robb g.r.m.robb@strath.ac.uk for the theoretical position.
A colloboration between the Experimental Quantum Optics and Photonics Group (T. Ackemann, E. Haller) and Computional Nonlonerar and Quantum Optics Group (G. Robb, P. Kirton) obtained funding from EPSRC for the investigation of Supersolids and quantum droplets via light mediated interactions. The project aims to realize supersolid and droplet phases of matter in a laser-driven Bose-Einstein condensate of ultracold Cs atoms via light-mediated interactions introduced by feed-back from a retroreflecting mirror. Diffractive dephasing of the retroreflected light induces the nontrivial spatial correlations leading to supersolidity. This work will develop a unique platform for exploring emergent behaviour and symmetry-breaking in self-organised supersolids with intriguing connections to the dynamics of long-range coupled systems and time crystals. Watch this space!
In a collaboration with the INPHYNI in Nice and the TU Vienna which just appeared in Physical Review A we are looking now at the interplay of diffraction within the atomic cloud and diffraction in vacuum. It turns out that for most situations it is sufficient to look at the linear Talbot effect but things get more involved, if one puts the mirror “into the cloud”. If you are curious, how to do this and what the resulting length scales are, please look at Phys. Rev. A 111, 063506.
New paper in Applied Physics Letter on how the efficiency of introducing a spin polarization in InGaAs quantum dots depends on pump wavelength. Unfortunately, the wavelengths for best spin polarization and best quantum efficiency are not the same. If you are interested, please look at Appl. Phys. Lett. 126, 191102 (2025).
Spontaneously Sliding Multipole Spin Density Waves in Cold Atoms reported in Physical Review Letters
Generating Multiparticle Entangled States by Self-Organization of Driven Ultracold Atoms reported in Physical Review Letters
Invited book chapter “Vector vortex solitons and soliton control in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers” in Dissipative Optical Solitons (Springer); preprint on arXiv
Review on self-organization with single-mirror feedback “Self-Organization in Cold Atoms Mediated by Diffractive Coupling” in atoms
A new article was published in Optica.
