We experimentally demonstrate coupling of an atomically thin, free-standing graphene membrane to an optical cavity. By changing the position of the membrane along the standing-wave field of the cavity we tailor the dissipative coupling between the membrane and the cavity, and we show that the dissipative coupling can outweigh the dispersive coupling. Such a system, for which controlled dissipation prevails dispersion, will prove useful for novel laser-cooling schemes in optomechanics. In addition, we have determined the continuous-wave optical damage threshold of free-standing monolayer graphene of 1.8(4)~MW/cm$^2$ at 780nm.

Hendrik M. Meyer Moritz Breyer Michael Köhl

We study a dispersion-compensated high-finesse optical Fabry-Perot microcavity under high-intensity cw pumping. The Kerr non-linearity in the optical coatings causes a spontaneous four-wave mixing process, which leads to the emission of time-correlated photon pairs. The photon frequencies are shifted by $\pm 1$ free spectral range relative to the pump frequency. This setup allows for constructing a photon-pair source with precisely adjustable frequency difference between the emitted photons, which may have applications in quantum communication.

Thorsten F. Langerfeld Hendrik M. Meyer Michael Köhl

We report on the realization of a liquid-filled optical microcavity and demonstrate photon-pair generation by spontaneous four-wave mixing. The bandwidth of the emitted photons is $\sim 300$ MHz and we demonstrate tuning of the emission wavelength between 770 and 800 nm. Moreover, by employing a liquid as the nonlinear optical medium completely filling the microcavity, we observe more than a factor $10^3$ increase of the pair correlation rate per unit pump power and a factor of 1.7 improvement in the coincidence/accidental ratio as compared to our previous measurements.

Felix Rönchen Thorsten F. Langerfeld Michael Köhl

The development of efficient network nodes is a key element for the realisation of quantum networks which promise great capabilities as distributed quantum computing or provable secure communication. We report the realisation of a quantum network node using a trapped ion inside a fiber-based Fabry-Perot cavity. We show the generation of deterministic entanglement at a high fidelity of $ 91.2(2) $\,\% between a trapped Yb--ion and a photon emitted into the resonator mode. We achieve a success probability for generation and detection of entanglement for a single shot of $ 2.5 \cdot 10^{-3}$ resulting in 62\,Hz entanglement rate.

Pascal Kobel Moritz Breyer Michael Köhl

We study experimentally and theoretically the response of a two-component Fermi condensate in the strongly-interacting regime to a quench of the interaction strength. The quench is realized using a radio-frequency $\pi$-pulse to a third internal level with a different interaction strength. We find that the quench excites the monopole mode of the trap in the hydrodynamic regime and that an initial change of the condensate properties takes place on a time scale comparable or even larger than the quasi-particle relaxation time.

Timothy Harrison Martin Link Alexandra Behrle Kuiyi Gao Andreas Kell Johannes Kombe Jean-Sébastien Bernier Corinna Kollath Michael Köhl

Optical fiber Fabry-Perot cavities have been a development facilitating the efficient integration of high-finesse cavities into fiber-optic assemblies. In this work, we demonstrate coupling of two high-finesse fiber cavities by direct photon tunneling between them. We detect the coupled mode spectra and demonstrated the variability of coupling strength and dissipation rates for different transverse modes. Moreover, we observe very narrow spectral features resulting from a dynamical generalizaton of electromagnetically-induced transparency showing that even dissipative systems without metastable states can feature long-lived coherences.

Steffen Gohlke Thorsten Langerfeld Andrea Bergschneider Michael Köhl

We study the Higgs mode of a strongly-interacting Fermi gas in the crossover regime between a fermionic and bosonic superfluid. By periodically modulating the interaction strength of the gas, we parametrically excite the Higgs mode and study its resonance frequency and line width as a function of both interaction strength and temperature. We find that the resonance frequency at low temperature agrees with a local-density approximation of the pairing gap. Both frequency and line width do not exhibit a pronounced variation with temperature, which is theoretically unexpected, however, in qualitative agreement with a different recent study.

Andreas Kell Moritz Breyer Daniel Eberz Michael Köhl

We present a cooling method for a strongly-interacting trapped quantum gas. By applying a magnetic field modulation with frequencies close to the binding energy of a molecular bound state we selectively remove dimers with high kinetic energy from the sample. We demonstrate cooling of the sample over a wide range of interaction strengths and measure a high cooling efficiency of $\gamma=4$ that exceeds all previous cooling near Feshbach resonances.

Daniel Eberz Andreas Kell Moritz Breyer Michael Köhl

We have created one-, two-, and three-dimensional quantum gases and study the superfluid to Mott insulator transition. Measurements of the transition using Bragg spectroscopy show that the excitation spectra of the low-dimensional superfluids differ significantly from the three-dimensional case.

M. Köhl H. Moritz T. Stöferle C. Schori T. Esslinger

We report on an investigation of the beam profile of an atom laser extracted from a magnetically trapped $^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate. The transverse momentum distribution is magnified by a curved mirror for matter waves and a momentum resolution of 1/60 of a photon recoil is obtained. We find the transverse momentum distribution to be determined by the mean-field potential of the residing condensate, which leads to a non-smooth transverse density distribution. Our experimental data are compared with a full 3D simulation of the output coupling process and we find good agreement.

M. Köhl Th. Busch K. Molmer T. W. Hänsch T. Esslinger