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Observing the Formation of Long-Range Order during Bose-Einstein Condensation

Stephan Ritter, Anton Öttl, Tobias Donner, Thomas Bourdel, Michael Köhl, and Tilman Esslinger
Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 090402 – Published 2 March 2007

Abstract

We have experimentally investigated the formation of off-diagonal long-range order in a gas of ultracold atoms. A magnetically trapped atomic cloud prepared in a highly nonequilibrium state thermalizes and thereby crosses the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition. The evolution of phase coherence between different regions of the sample is constantly monitored and information on the spatial first-order correlation function is obtained. We observe the growth of the spatial coherence and the formation of long-range order in real time and compare it to the growth of the atomic density. Moreover, we study the evolution of the momentum distribution during the nonequilibrium formation of the condensate.

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  • Received 4 July 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.090402

©2007 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Stephan Ritter, Anton Öttl, Tobias Donner, Thomas Bourdel, Michael Köhl*, and Tilman Esslinger

  • Institute for Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

  • *Email address: koehl@phys.ethz.ch

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Issue

Vol. 98, Iss. 9 — 2 March 2007

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