In situ observation of optomechanical Bloch oscillations in an optical cavity

Abstract

It is shown experimentally that a Bose–Einstein condensate inside an optical cavity, operating in the regime of strong cooperative coupling, responds to an external force by an optomechanical Bloch oscillation, which can be directly observed in the light leaking out of the cavity. Previous theoretical work predicts that the frequency of this oscillation matches with that of conventional Bloch oscillations such that its in situ monitoring may help to increase the data acquisition speed in precision force measurements.

Keywords

• quantum gases
• cavity electrodynamics
• Bloch oscillations
• optomechanics
• 03.75.Lm
• 03.75.-b