Kapitza Trap for Ultracold Atoms.

We report on the experimental realization of a Kapitza trap for ultracold atoms. Using time-periodic attractive and repulsive Gaussian potentials, we create an effective trap for ultracold neutral atoms in a regime where the time average of the potential is equal to zero. We analyze the role of experimental imperfections, the stability of the trapped atomic cloud, and the magnitude of the effective potential.

Coherent perfect absorption of nonlinear matter waves.

Coherent perfect absorption is the complete extinction of incoming radiation by a complex potential in a physical system supporting wave propagation. The concept was proven for linear waves in a variety of systems including light interacting with absorbing scatterers, plasmonic metasurfaces, and graphene films, as well as sound waves. We extend the paradigm to coherent perfect absorption of nonlinear waves and experimentally demonstrate it for matter waves in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate.

Measuring finite-range phase coherence in an optical lattice using Talbot interferometry.

One of the important goals of present research is to control and manipulate coherence in a broad variety of systems, such as semiconductor spintronics, biological photosynthetic systems, superconducting qubits and complex atomic networks. Over the past decades, interferometry of atoms and molecules has proven to be a powerful tool to explore coherence. Here we demonstrate a near-field interferometer based on the Talbot effect, which allows us to measure finite-range phase coherence of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice.