Welcome to the webpage of Prof. Michael Chapman's research group at the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia. Our research is focused on investigating the quantum behavior of atoms and photons, often at the single particle level. We employ lasers to confine and cool atoms to nano-Kelvin temperatures, which are used for studies including fundamental atom-photon interactions, atom optics and interferometry, and quantum computing and communication.
Our group recently tested the Kibble-Zurek mechanism in a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate, and the parametric excitation and stabilization of a many-body system. We previously studied the dynamics of a quantum inverted pendulum, spin-nematic squeezing, and coherent spin mixing. Earlier achievements include the first all-optical Bose-Einstein condensation, the first storage ring for neutral atoms, and cavity QED with optically transported ultracold atoms.
We utilize an all-optical trap to cool 87Rb atoms down to quantum degeneracy and study various phenomena only present in cold atom systems. We focus on spinor Bose-Einstein conde nsates (BEC), where collisions between atoms act on the spin degrees of freedom of the system, infuenced by external parameters such as magnetic fields.
The primary objective of this research is to develop non-destructive, or lossless, quantum state detection methods for single trapped neutral atoms in order to realize robust neutral atom qubits.
We propose to apply AMO technologies of ion trapping and cooling and high resolution spectroscopy to the manipulation of a nuclear excited state.