In this article, I will be discussing the main practical applications of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) is closely related to superconductivity, and the primary application of atomic BEC systems is in basic research areas at the moment.
Simulation of condensed matter systems
One of the hottest areas in BEC at the moment is the use of Bose condensates to simulate condensed matter systems. You can easily make an “optical lattice” from an interference pattern of multiple laser beams, which looks like a crystal lattice to the atoms. As a result, there is a great deal of work in using BEC systems to explore condensed matter physics.
One advantage of BEC/ optical lattice systems over real condensed matter systems is that they are more easily tunable, allowing researchers to explore a range of different parameters with the same sample. This is especially difficult to do with condensed matter systems, where new samples need to be grown for every new set of values to be explored. Researchers continue to expand the range of experiments, including the effect of adding disorder to these systems and exploring lattice structures beyond the square lattices used in earlier work.
For those interested in this field, a good review article by Immanuel Bloch, Jean Dalibard, and Wilhelm Zwerger covers a lot of this work.
Precision measurement
BEC systems may provide an improvement in precision measurement beyond what we can do with thermal beams of atoms. At the moment, some of the most sensitive detectors ever made for things like rotation, acceleration, and gravity gradients come from atom interferometry, using the wavelike properties of atoms to do interference experiments that measure small shifts induced by these effects.
There are a number of issues to be worked out involving interatomic interactions, but this is a promising area for researchers. Mark Kasevich, a researcher at Stanford, does a lot of work in this area.
Quantum information processing
Quantum computing requires a way to start with a bunch of qubits that are all in the same state. Using a BEC could be a good way to achieve this, as it consists of a macroscopic number of atoms occupying the same quantum state. Researchers are working on ways to separate the atoms in a BEC and manipulate them to do simple quantum computing operations.
There is a lot of overlap between these sub-sub-fields. For example, one of the best ways to separate the qubits for quantum information processing is to use an optical lattice. None of these areas are likely to provide a commercial product in the immediate future. However, they are all providing useful information about the behavior of matter on very small scales. This helps feed into other, more applied, lines of research.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the primary use of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates is in basic research areas. The sub-sub-fields of BEC, including simulation of condensed matter systems, precision measurement, and quantum information processing are all promising applications of BEC research. While they are unlikely to provide commercial products in the near future, they provide useful information about the behavior of matter on very small scales.
Practical applications for a Bose-Einstein condensate
In this article, I will be discussing the main practical applications of a Bose-Einstein condensate. Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) is closely related to superconductivity, and the primary application of atomic BEC systems is in basic research areas at the moment.
Simulation of condensed matter systems
One of the hottest areas in BEC at the moment is the use of Bose condensates to simulate condensed matter systems. You can easily make an “optical lattice” from an interference pattern of multiple laser beams, which looks like a crystal lattice to the atoms. As a result, there is a great deal of work in using BEC systems to explore condensed matter physics.
One advantage of BEC/ optical lattice systems over real condensed matter systems is that they are more easily tunable, allowing researchers to explore a range of different parameters with the same sample. This is especially difficult to do with condensed matter systems, where new samples need to be grown for every new set of values to be explored. Researchers continue to expand the range of experiments, including the effect of adding disorder to these systems and exploring lattice structures beyond the square lattices used in earlier work.
For those interested in this field, a good review article by Immanuel Bloch, Jean Dalibard, and Wilhelm Zwerger covers a lot of this work.
Precision measurement
BEC systems may provide an improvement in precision measurement beyond what we can do with thermal beams of atoms. At the moment, some of the most sensitive detectors ever made for things like rotation, acceleration, and gravity gradients come from atom interferometry, using the wavelike properties of atoms to do interference experiments that measure small shifts induced by these effects.
There are a number of issues to be worked out involving interatomic interactions, but this is a promising area for researchers. Mark Kasevich, a researcher at Stanford, does a lot of work in this area.
Quantum information processing
Quantum computing requires a way to start with a bunch of qubits that are all in the same state. Using a BEC could be a good way to achieve this, as it consists of a macroscopic number of atoms occupying the same quantum state. Researchers are working on ways to separate the atoms in a BEC and manipulate them to do simple quantum computing operations.
There is a lot of overlap between these sub-sub-fields. For example, one of the best ways to separate the qubits for quantum information processing is to use an optical lattice. None of these areas are likely to provide a commercial product in the immediate future. However, they are all providing useful information about the behavior of matter on very small scales. This helps feed into other, more applied, lines of research.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the primary use of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates is in basic research areas. The sub-sub-fields of BEC, including simulation of condensed matter systems, precision measurement, and quantum information processing are all promising applications of BEC research. While they are unlikely to provide commercial products in the near future, they provide useful information about the behavior of matter on very small scales.