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Quantum Physicist Bigelow Elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America

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Quantum Physicist Bigelow Elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America

(Professor Nicholas Bigelow, Physics & Astronomy and The Institute of Optics)

by Arie Bodek

February 2, 2007: Dr. Nicholas P. Bigelow, Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Physics (and Professor of Optics and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics) was elected fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) for "pioneering experimental leadership in both spin squeezing and two-species trapping of ultra-cold atoms and for service through meeting organization and journal editing."

In February each year, the OSA officially announces its list of newly elected fellows. The OSA limits fellowship to 10 percent of its 11,400 members. This year, two University of Rochester scientists were elected OSA fellows: Dr. Bigelow and Dr. Lucas Novotny, Associate Professor of Optics (and Physics and Biomedical Engineering).

Professor Bigelow's research in the areas of Quantum Optics and Quantum Physics deals with the manipulation and control of atoms at temperatures close to absolute zero. The starting point for all of these experiments is a technique referred to as "laser cooling" in which carefully prepared beams of light are shined on an atomic sample. By doing this in the presence of a carefully tailored magnetic field, Bigelow and his group both cool and trap the atoms at temperatures on a few tens of millionths of a degree above absolute zero. The development of techniques for laser cooling atoms of a single atomic species (a single element) was accomplished more then a decade ago, and the 1997 Nobel prize in Physics was awarded to Steve Chu (Rochester '70), Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with lasers."

Image -- Bigelow and graduate students Chris Haimberger and Jan Kleinert with the ultracold molecule experimental setup at Rochester

Bigelow and his group have specialized in cooling and trapping atoms of multiple atomic species at the same time and in the same trap. One aim of this work is to create a sample of ultracold polar molecules (diatomic molecules made from to different kinds of atoms), while another innovation involves the trapping of cold atoms (both single species and multiple species) at the surface of a new device called the "atom chip."

Image -- Graduate student Michael Homes at the atom chip experimental setup

The "atom chip" is a device for cooling and trapping neutral atoms with micron-sized wires fabricated on a highly reflective surface. This kind of trap is capable of producing huge magnetic field gradients that can confine the atomic ensemble at a fixed distance from the chip -- typically a few microns -- hence the name "atom chip." The atom chip has various advantages over traditional magnetic traps. Some of the benefits include low-power consumption, higher field gradients and trapping potentials, and precision small-scale control. There has been experimental progress in the development of possible quantum information devices, such as atom splitters and interferometers, and even guiding a Bose Einstein Condensate on a chip.

Professor Bigelow received both a B.S. in Engineering Physics and a B.S. Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University in 1981. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University in 1989 and then joined the technical staff of AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he remained until 1991. Early in 1991, he moved to the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France, where he worked in the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel. He joined the University of Rochester in 1992, where he presently holds the position of Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Physics and of Optics and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He has won the Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Rochester twice (in 1998 and 2006), as well as the University Dean's Award for Meritorious Service in Ph.D. Defenses in 2003.

Bigelow is the recipient of a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship, and a Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He was also elected fellow of the American Physical Society in 2004. In 2004, he was served as a Topical Editor for Optics Letters, which is published by the Optical Society of America. Bigelow has served as an invited researcher in the laser cooling groups at the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel in Paris, the Institude d'Optique in Orsay, France, and at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Additional Details

For further details, see:

M. Tscherneck, J. Kleinert, C. Haimberger, M. Holmes, A. Wakim, P. Quinto-Su, and N. P. Bigelow, "Atoms, molecules, and optics on chips," Proc. SPIE 6131, 613101 (2006).

M. Tscherneck, J. Kleinart, C. Haimberger, M. E. Holmes, and N. P. Bigelow, "Creating, detecting and locating in a surface trap ultracold molecules," Applied Physics (80), 639-643 (2005).

P. Quinto-Su, M. Tschernek, M. Holmes, and N.P. Bigelow, "On-chip detection of laser-cooled atoms," Optics Express, 12, 5098 (2004).

For more information, please contact:
   Professor Nicholas P. Bigelow
   Email: nbig@lle.rochester.edu
   Faculty Webpage: http://spider.pas.rochester.edu/mainFrame/people/pages/Bigelow_Nicholas_P.html

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