Sub-Poissonian atom-number fluctuations by three-body loss in mesoscopic ensembles
| Authors |
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| Publication date | 2010 |
| Journal | Physical Review Letters |
| Volume | Issue number | 104 | 12 |
| Pages (from-to) | 120402 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Organisations |
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| Abstract | We show that three-body loss of trapped atoms leads to sub-Poissonian atom-number fluctuations. We prepare hundreds of dense ultracold ensembles in an array of magnetic microtraps which undergo rapid three-body decay. The shot-to-shot fluctuations of the number of atoms per trap are sub-Poissonian, for ensembles comprising 50-300 atoms. The measured relative variance or Fano factor F=0.53±0.22 agrees very well with the prediction by an analytic theory (F=3/5) and numerical calculations. These results will facilitate studies of quantum information science with mesoscopic ensembles. |
| Document type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Published at |
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.120402
(Final published version)
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| Downloads |
330132.pdf
(Final published version)
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