Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle

Professor Ketterle's research is in atomic physics and laser spectroscopy, particularly in the area of laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms with the goal of exploring new aspects of ultracold atomic matter.

His major accomplishments are the development of important tools to manipulate and study Bose-Einstein condensates, and several seminal studies of the properties of Bose-Einstein condensates and quantum degenerate Fermi gases. During the early ‘90s, he and his collaborators developed techniques (a novel “dark” light trap, rf-induced evaporative cooling) which were crucial for the first observations of BEC both at Boulder (in rubidium, June ’95) and at MIT (in sodium, Sept. ’95). These observations led to a new subfield of atomic physics.

New tools which his group developed for the study of BEC include the cloverleaf magnetic trap, dispersive imaging techniques for in situ and non-perturbative observation of BEC, the rf output coupler (which triggered the field of atom lasers), an optical trap to confine condensates and transport them over large distances, and the use of Bragg scattering as a tool for spectroscopy of a condensate. These techniques were used to explore the new physics of gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates. An interference experiment between two BECs provided the first direct evidence for the coherent nature and long-range correlations of a Bose condensate and established Bose condensates as coherent atom sources. Further important work includes studies of collective excitations in a condensate, the first measurement of the speed of sound, studies of spinor condensates, an exploration of the optical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate, the discovery of superradiance of a condensate, a study of the formation process of the condensate, the first observation of Feshbach resonances, the realization of phase-coherent atom amplification, the study of vortex lattices, the realization of a Bose-Einstein condensate of fermion pairs, the observation of superfluidity in fermions (through quantized vortices), the study of superfluidity in imbalanced fermion systems, and the study of itinerant ferromagnetism in a gas of fermions. More recently, the focus of his research has shifted towards quantum magnetism of ultracold atoms.


(summary updated 11/2011)