Optical probing of a Bose-Einstein condensate

Abstract

Experimental results acquired with various methods used to optically probe an excitonic Bose-Einstein condensate are presented. The condensate is initially created by a high-intensity pulsed laser illumination (lambda = 532 nm) incident on a high-quality natural single crystal of Cu2O (at T = 1.8 K), having (100) symmetry. The travelling condensate is laterally probed by a laser pulse tuned at the 1S orthoexciton resonance (lambda = 609.51 nm), where significant condensate amplification is observed. Correspondingly, the resonant probing beam is additionally attenuated upon being transmitted through the excitonic packet. In an attempt to measure the condensate's lateral and longitudinal dimensions, the additional attenuation (NDA) is determined at various probing beam positions relative to the perpendicularly propagating packet. A three-dimensional representation of the exciton packet was constructed with spatially dependent NDA measurements. Highly detailed continuous spectra of the 1S line were taken with the use of a tunable dye laser, permitting the observation of never before seen features in the 1S line. The wavelength dependance of both the condensate amplification and the lateral pulse's additional attenuation were studied using this technique. The onset of a secondary exciton packet observed in various excitation geometries, further contributed to the amplification model proposed in previous work. Moreover, a strong correlation between electrical and all-optical measurements was found, providing reassurance on the validity of past interpretations based on electrical measurements.