Kibble-Zurek Mechanism in the Self-Organization of a Cold Atomic Cloud

When applying two counterpropagating laser beams to a cold cloud of rubidium atoms, we observe the spontaneous formation of intensity patterns associated with a spatial structuration of the atomic spins. We study the average number of defects in these patterns as a function of the sweep time employe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2016-12, Vol.117 (27), p.275701-275701, Article 275701
Main Authors: Labeyrie, G, Kaiser, R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic structure
Clouds
Defects
Formations
Instability
Laser beams
Physics
Quantum Physics
Rubidium
Thresholds
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Summary:When applying two counterpropagating laser beams to a cold cloud of rubidium atoms, we observe the spontaneous formation of intensity patterns associated with a spatial structuration of the atomic spins. We study the average number of defects in these patterns as a function of the sweep time employed to cross the instability threshold. We observe a power-law decrease of the number of defects with increasing sweep time, typical of the Kibble-Zurek mechanism. The measured exponent is consistent with the prediction for a supercritical bifurcation.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.275701