Dynamic of cold-atom tips in anharmonic potentials.

Understanding the dynamics of ultracold quantum gases in an anharmonic potential is essential for applications in the new field of cold-atom scanning probe microscopy. Therein, cold atomic ensembles are used as sensitive probe tips to investigate nanostructured surfaces and surface-near potentials, which typically cause anharmonic tip motion. Besides a theoretical description of this anharmonic tip motion, we introduce a novel method for detecting the cold-atom tip dynamics in situ and real time.