Simon L Cornish

Simon L Cornish
Durham University | DU · Department of Physics

MA (Oxon), DPhil (Oxon)

About

161
Publications
25,107
Reads
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7,870
Citations
Introduction
My research interests lie in the use of magnetic Feshbach resonances both to tune the atomic interactions in a Bose-Einstein condensate and to create ultracold molecules. I currently lead three experiments focussed on (i) the study of bright matter wave solitons in 85Rb condensates (ii) the production of ultracold RbCs molecules and (iii) the realisation of a quantum degenerate mixture of Yb and Cs.
Additional affiliations
January 2004 - present
Durham University
Position
  • Ultracold Quantum Gases
Description
  • I lead the experimental ultracold quantum gases research group.
January 2001 - December 2003
University of Oxford
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Description
  • Studying evaporative cooling of atomic Cs to high phase space densities.
January 1999 - December 2000
JILA, University of Colorado
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Description
  • Investigating condensate collapse with the first Bose-Einstein condensates in 85Rb
Education
October 1994 - September 1998
Linacre College, Oxford University
Field of study
  • Atomic and Laser Physics
October 1991 - June 1994
Keble College, Oxford University
Field of study
  • Physics

Publications

Publications (161)
Article
Full-text available
We investigate magnetoassociation of ultracold Feshbach molecules from a Bose- Einstein condensate of Cs atoms and explore the spectrum of weakly bound molecular states close to the atomic threshold. By exploiting the variation of magnetic field experienced by a molecular cloud falling in the presence of a magnetic field gradient, we demonstrate th...
Article
Full-text available
We report the creation of a sample of over 1000 ultracold $^{87}$RbCs molecules in the lowest rovibrational ground state, from an atomic mixture of $^{87}$Rb and Cs, by magnetoassociation on an interspecies Feshbach resonance followed by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). We measure the binding energy of the RbCs molecule to be $h c \time...
Article
Full-text available
We report the formation of a dual-species Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb and 133Cs in the same trapping potential. Our method exploits the efficient sympathetic cooling of 133Cs via elastic collisions with 87Rb, initially in a magnetic quadrupole trap and subsequently in a levitated optical trap. The two condensates each contain up to 2×104 atoms...
Article
Full-text available
Bright solitons are non-dispersive wave solutions, arising in a diverse range of nonlinear, one-dimensional systems, including atomic Bose-Einstein condensates with attractive interactions. In reality, cold-atom experiments can only approach the idealized one-dimensional limit necessary for the realization of true solitons. Nevertheless, it remains...
Preprint
Full-text available
Realising quantum control and entanglement of particles is crucial for advancing both quantum technologies and fundamental science. Significant developments in this domain have been achieved in a variety of systems. In this context, ultracold polar molecules offer new and unique opportunities due to their more complex internal structure associated...
Article
We consider ultralong-range polyatomic Rydberg molecules formed by combining a Rydberg cesium atom and a ground-state RbCs molecule. We explore the regime where the charge-dipole interaction due to the Rydberg electron with the diatomic polar molecule couples the quantum defect Rydberg states Cs(ns) to the nearest degenerate hydrogenic manifold. We...
Preprint
Full-text available
Many experimental platforms for quantum science depend on state control via laser fields. Frequently, however, the control fidelity is limited by optical phase noise. This is exacerbated in stabilized laser systems where high-frequency phase noise is an unavoidable consequence of feedback. Here we implement an optical feedforward technique to suppr...
Poster
Full-text available
Triatomic ultra-long Rydberg molecules are formed by the interaction of a Rydberg atom, an excited atom with an electron with high principal quantum number, and a polar molecule. The study of Rydberg molecules is motivated by its interesting properties and possible applications in ultracold chemical reactions or quantum simulations. In this work, w...
Article
Full-text available
Control over the quantum states of individual molecules is crucial in the quest to harness their rich internal structure and dipolar interactions for applications in quantum science. In this paper, we develop a toolbox of techniques for the control and readout of individually trapped polar molecules in an array of optical tweezers. Starting with ar...
Article
Full-text available
We report on the transport of a thermal cloud of ultracold cesium and rubidium atoms over about 37 cm in under 25 ms using an optical conveyor belt formed by two counterpropagating beams with a controllable frequency difference that generate a movable optical lattice. By carefully selecting the waists and focus positions, we are able to use two sta...
Article
Full-text available
Ultracold polar molecules combine a rich structure of long-lived internal states with access to controllable long-range anisotropic dipole–dipole interactions. In particular, the rotational states of polar molecules confined in optical tweezers or optical lattices may be used to encode interacting qubits for quantum computation or pseudo-spins for...
Article
Full-text available
We identify a route for the production of ^{87} 87 Rb ^{133} 133 Cs molecules in the X^1\Sigma^+ X 1 Σ + rovibronic ground state that is compatible with efficient mixing of the atoms in optical lattices. We first construct a model for the excited-state structure using constants found by fitting to spectroscopy of the relevant a\,^3 \Sigma^+ → b\, ^...
Preprint
Full-text available
We report on the transport of ultracold cesium and rubidium atoms over $37.2\,$cm in under $25\,$ms using an optical conveyor belt formed by two counter-propagating beams with a controllable frequency difference that generate a movable optical lattice. By carefully selecting the waists and focus positions, we are able to use two static Gaussian bea...
Article
Full-text available
We demonstrate Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between a single Rb atom and a single RbCs molecule confined in optical tweezers. The molecule is formed by magnetoassociation of a Rb+Cs atom pair and subsequently transferred to the rovibrational ground state with an efficiency of 91(1)%. Species-specific tweezers are used to co...
Preprint
Full-text available
Ultracold polar molecules uniquely combine a rich structure of long-lived internal states with access to controllable long-range, anisotropic dipole-dipole interactions. In particular, the rotational states of polar molecules confined in optical tweezers or optical lattices may be used to encode interacting qubits for quantum computation or pseudo-...
Article
We present a simple motorized rotation mount for a half-wave plate that can be used to rapidly change the polarization of light. We use the device to switch a high power laser beam between different optical dipole traps in an ultracold atom experiment. The device uses a stepper motor with a hollow shaft, which allows a beam to propagate along the a...
Article
Full-text available
We demonstrate the formation of a single RbCs molecule during the merging of two optical tweezers, one containing a single Rb atom and the other a single Cs atom. Both atoms are initially predominantly in the motional ground states of their respective tweezers. We confirm molecule formation and establish the state of the molecule formed by measurin...
Preprint
Full-text available
We identify a route for the production of $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules in the $\textrm{X} \, ^1\Sigma^+$ rovibronic ground state that is compatible with efficient mixing of the atoms in optical lattices. We first construct a model for the excited-state structure using constants found by fitting to spectroscopy of the relevant $\textrm{a} \, ^3\Sig...
Preprint
Full-text available
We demonstrate Rydberg blockade due to the charge-dipole interaction between a single Rb atom and a single RbCs molecule confined in optical tweezers. The molecule is formed by magnetoassociation of a Rb+Cs atom pair and subsequently transferred to the rovibrational ground state with an efficiency of 91(1)\%. Species-specific tweezers are used to c...
Preprint
Full-text available
We demonstrate the formation of a single RbCs molecule during the merging of two optical tweezers, one containing a single Rb atom and the other a single Cs atom. Both atoms are initially predominantly in the motional ground states of their respective tweezers. We confirm molecule formation and establish the state of the molecule formed by measurin...
Preprint
Full-text available
We present a simple motorised rotation mount for a half-wave plate that can be used to rapidly change the polarization of light. We use the device to switch a high power laser beam between different optical dipole traps in an ultracold atom experiment. The device uses a stepper motor with a hollow shaft, which allows a beam to propagate along the a...
Article
Full-text available
We prepare pairs of $^{133}$Cs atoms in a single optical tweezer and perform Feshbach spectroscopy for collisions of atoms in the states $(f=3, m_f=\pm3)$. We detect enhancements in pair loss using a detection scheme where the optical tweezers are repeatedly subdivided. For atoms in the state $(3,-3)$, we identify resonant features by performing in...
Article
Full-text available
We report the observation of magnetic Feshbach resonances between Yb173 and Cs133. In a mixture of Cs atoms prepared in the (f=3,mf=3) state and unpolarized fermionic Yb173, we observe resonant atom loss due to two sets of magnetic Feshbach resonances around 622 and 702 G. Resonances for individual Yb nuclear spin components mi,Yb are split by its...
Article
Full-text available
We report simultaneous Raman sideband cooling of a single ⁸⁷ Rb atom and a single ¹³³ Cs atom held in separate optical tweezers at 814 nm and 938 nm, respectively. Starting from outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, after 45 ms of cooling we measure probabilities to occupy the three-dimensional motional ground state of 0.86 +0.03 -0.04 for Rb and 0.95 +0....
Preprint
Full-text available
We report the first observation of magnetic Feshbach resonances between ${}^{173}$Yb and $^{133}$Cs. In a mixture of Cs atoms prepared in the $(f=3, m_f=3)$ state and unpolarized fermionic ${}^{173}$Yb we observe resonant atom loss due to two sets of magnetic Feshbach resonances around 622~G and 702~G. Resonances for individual Yb nuclear spin comp...
Article
We present a computer program to calculate the quantised rotational and hyperfine energy levels of Σ1 diatomic molecules in the presence of dc electric, dc magnetic, and off-resonant optical fields. Our program is applicable to the bialkali molecules used in ongoing state-of-the-art experiments with ultracold molecular gases. We include functions c...
Preprint
Full-text available
We report simultaneous Raman sideband cooling of a single $^{87}$Rb atom and a single $^{133}$Cs atom held in separate optical tweezers at 814 nm and 938 nm, respectively. Starting from outside the Lamb-Dicke regime, after 45 ms of cooling we measure probabilities to occupy the three-dimensional motional ground state of 0.86$^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$ for R...
Preprint
Full-text available
We present a computer program to calculate the quantised rotational and hyperfine structure of $^1\Sigma$ diatomic molecules in the presence of dc electric, dc magnetic, and off-resonant optical fields. Our program is suitable for calculating the internal structure of the bialkali molecules used in ongoing state-of-the-art experiments with ultracol...
Preprint
Full-text available
We prepare pairs of $^{133}$Cs atoms in a single optical tweezer and perform Feshbach spectroscopy for collisions of atoms in the states $(f=3, m_f=\pm3)$. We detect enhancements in pair loss using a detection scheme where the optical tweezers are repeatedly subdivided. For atoms in the state $(3,-3)$, we identify resonant features by performing in...
Article
Magnetic fields can be used to change chemical reaction rates by a factor of 100.
Article
Full-text available
Understanding ultracold collisions involving molecules is of fundamental importance for current experiments, where inelastic collisions typically limit the lifetime of molecular ensembles in optical traps. Here we present a broad study of optically trapped ultracold RbCs molecules in collisions with one another, in reactive collisions with Rb atoms...
Article
We perform a measurement of the tune-out wavelength, λ0, between the D1, 62S1/2→62P1/2, and D2, 62S1/2→62P3/2, transitions for Cs133 in the ground hyperfine state (F=3,mF=+3). At λ0, the frequency-dependent scalar polarizability is zero leading to a zero scalar ac Stark shift. We measure the polarizability as a function of wavelength using Kapitza-...
Article
Full-text available
Quantum states with long-lived coherence are essential for quantum computation, simulation and metrology. The nuclear spin states of ultracold molecules prepared in the singlet rovibrational ground state are an excellent candidate for encoding and storing quantum information. However, it is important to understand all sources of decoherence for the...
Preprint
Full-text available
We perform a measurement of the tune-out wavelength, $\lambda_{0}$, between the $D_{1}$, $6^2S_{1/2}\rightarrow6^2P_{1/2}$, and $D_{2}$, $6^2S_{1/2}\rightarrow6^2P_{3/2}$, transitions for $^{133}$Cs in the ground hyperfine state $(F=3, m_{F}=+3)$. At $\lambda_{0}$, the frequency-dependent scalar polarizability is zero leading to a zero scalar ac St...
Preprint
Full-text available
Understanding ultracold collisions involving molecules is of fundamental importance for current experiments, where inelastic collisions typically limit the lifetime of molecular ensembles in optical traps. Here we present a broad study of optically trapped ultracold RbCs molecules in collisions with one another, in reactive collisions with Rb atoms...
Article
Full-text available
We probe the collective dynamics of a quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixture of Cs133 and Yb174 with attractive interspecies interactions. Specifically, we excite vertical center-of-mass oscillations of the Cs condensate. We observe significant damping for the Cs dipole mode, due to the rapid transfer of energy to the larger Yb component and the ensu...
Article
Full-text available
We report the preparation of exactly one ⁸⁷Rb atom and one ¹³³Cs atom in the same optical tweezer as the essential first step towards the construction of a tweezer array of individually trapped ⁸⁷Rb¹³³Cs molecules. Through careful selection of the tweezer wavelengths, we show how to engineer species-selective trapping potentials suitable for high-f...
Preprint
Full-text available
We report the preparation of exactly one $^{87}$Rb atom and one $^{133}$Cs atom in the same optical tweezer as the essential first step towards the construction of a tweezer array of individually trapped $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules. Through careful selection of the tweezer wavelengths, we show how to engineer species-selective trapping potentials...
Article
We investigate magic-wavelength trapping of ultracold bialkali molecules in the vicinity of weak optical transitions from the vibrational ground state of the XΣ+1 potential to low-lying rovibrational states of the b3Π0 potential, focusing our discussion on the Rb87Cs133 molecule in a magnetic field of B=181 G. We show that a frequency window exists...
Preprint
Full-text available
Quantum states with long-lived coherence are essential for quantum computation, simulation and metrology. The nuclear spin states of ultracold molecules prepared in the singlet rovibrational ground state are an excellent candidate for encoding and storing quantum information. However, it is important to understand all sources of decoherence for the...
Article
We report the production of quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixtures of Cs and Yb with both attractive (Cs+Yb174) and repulsive (Cs+Yb170) interspecies interactions. Dual-species evaporation is performed in a bichromatic optical dipole trap that combines light at 1070 nm and 532 nm to enable control of the relative trap depths for Cs and Yb. Maintaini...
Preprint
Full-text available
We investigate magic-wavelength trapping of ultracold bialkali molecules in the vicinity of weak optical transitions from the vibrational ground state of the X$^1\Sigma^+$ potential to low-lying rovibrational states of the b$^3\Pi_0$ potential, focussing our discussion on the $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecule in a magnetic field of $B=181\,$G. We show t...
Preprint
Full-text available
We probe the collective dynamics of a quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixture of Cs and $^{174}$Yb with attractive interspecies interactions. Specifically, we excite vertical center of mass oscillations of the Cs condensate, and observe significant damping for the Cs dipole mode, due to the rapid transfer of energy to the larger Yb component, and the...
Article
Full-text available
We investigate the effects of static electric and magnetic fields on the differential ac Stark shifts for microwave transitions in ultracold bosonic Rb87Cs133 molecules, for light of wavelength λ=1064nm. Near this wavelength we observe unexpected two-photon transitions that may cause trap loss. We measure the ac Stark effect in external magnetic an...
Preprint
Full-text available
We report the production of quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixtures of Cs and Yb with both attractive (Cs + $^{174}$Yb) and repulsive (Cs + $^{170}$Yb) interspecies interactions. Dual-species evaporation is performed in a bichromatic optical dipole trap that combines light at 1070 nm and 532 nm to enable control of the relative trap depths for Cs and...
Article
We explore coherent multi-photon processes in ⁸⁷Rb¹³³Cs molecules using 3-level lambda and ladder configurations of rotational and hyperfine states, and discuss their relevance to future applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. In the lambda configuration, we demonstrate the driving of population between two hyperfine levels of t...
Article
Full-text available
We investigate Feshbach resonances in collisions of high-spin atoms such as Er and Dy with closed-shell atoms such as Sr and Yb, using coupled-channel scattering and bound-state calculations. We consider both low-anisotropy and high-anisotropy limits. In both regimes, we find many resonances with a wide variety of widths. The wider resonances are s...
Preprint
Full-text available
We explore coherent multi-photon processes in $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules using 3-level lambda and ladder configurations of rotational and hyperfine states, and discuss their relevance to future applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. In the lambda configuration, we demonstrate the driving of population between two hyperfine l...
Preprint
Full-text available
We investigate the effects of static electric and magnetic fields on the differential ac Stark shifts for microwave transitions in ultracold bosonic $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules, for light of wavelength $\lambda = 1064~\mathrm{nm}$. Near this wavelength we observe unexpected two-photon transitions that may cause trap loss. We measure the ac Stark...
Article
Polar molecules are an emerging platform for quantum technologies based on their long-range electric dipole–dipole interactions, which open new possibilities for quantum information processing and the quantum simulation of strongly correlated systems. Here, we use magnetic and microwave fields to design a fast entangling gate with >0.999 fidelity a...
Article
Full-text available
We show that the lifetime of ultracold ground-state Rb87Cs133 molecules in an optical trap is limited by fast optical excitation of long-lived two-body collision complexes. We partially suppress this loss mechanism by applying square-wave modulation to the trap intensity, such that the molecules spend 75% of each modulation cycle in the dark. By va...
Article
Full-text available
Atomic Bose–Einstein condensates confined in quasi-1D waveguides can support bright-solitary-matter waves when interatomic interactions are sufficiently attractive to cancel dispersion. Such solitary-matter waves are excellent candidates for highly sensitive interferometers, as their non-dispersive nature allows them to acquire phase shifts for lon...
Preprint
Full-text available
We show that the lifetime of ultracold ground-state $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules in an optical trap is limited by fast optical excitation of long-lived two-body collision complexes. We partially suppress this loss mechanism by applying square-wave modulation to the trap intensity, such that the molecules spend 75% of each modulation cycle in the d...
Article
Full-text available
We discuss how the internal structure of ultracold molecules, trapped in the motional ground state of optical tweezers, can be used to implement qudits. We explore the rotational, fine and hyperfine structure of $^{40}$Ca$^{19}$F and $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs, which are examples of molecules with $^2\Sigma$ and $^1\Sigma$ electronic ground states, respec...
Preprint
Full-text available
Polar molecules are an emerging platform for quantum technologies based on their long-range electric dipole-dipole interactions, which open new possibilities for quantum information processing and the quantum simulation of strongly correlated systems. Here, we use magnetic and microwave fields to design a fast entangling gate with $>0.999$ fidelity...
Preprint
Full-text available
We have investigated Feshbach resonances in collisions of high-spin atoms such as Er and Dy with closed-shell atoms such as Sr and Yb, using coupled-channel scattering and bound-state calculations. We consider both low-anisotropy and high-anisotropy limits. In both regimes we find many resonances with a wide variety of widths. The wider resonances...
Article
We investigate magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions between ground-state Yb and Cs atoms, using coupled-channel calculations based on an interaction potential recently determined from photoassociation spectroscopy. We predict resonance positions and widths for all stable isotopes of Yb, together with resonance decay para...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding and controlling collisions is crucial to the burgeoning field of ultracold molecules. All experiments so far have observed fast loss of molecules from the trap. However, the dominant mechanism for collisional loss is not well understood when there are no allowed 2-body loss processes. Here we experimentally investigate collisional los...
Preprint
Full-text available
Solitons are long-lived wavepackets that propagate without dispersion and exist in a wide range of one-dimensional (1D) nonlinear systems. A Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a quasi-1D waveguide can support bright-solitary-matter waves (3D analogues of solitons) when interatomic interactions are sufficiently attractive that they cancel dispersio...
Preprint
Full-text available
We investigate magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions between ground-state Yb and Cs atoms, using coupled-channel calculations based on an interaction potential recently determined from photoassociation spectroscopy. We predict resonance positions and widths for all stable isotopes of Yb, together with resonance decay para...
Preprint
Full-text available
Understanding and controlling collisions is crucial to the burgeoning field of ultracold molecules. All experiments so far have observed fast loss of molecules from the trap. However, the dominant mechanism for collisional loss is not well understood when there are no allowed 2-body loss processes. Here we experimentally investigate collisional los...
Article
Full-text available
Polar molecules offer a new platform for quantum simulation of systems with long-range interactions, based on the electrostatic interaction between their electric dipole moments. Here, we report the development of coherent quantum state control using microwave fields in 40Ca19F and 87Rb133Cs molecules, a crucial ingredient for many quantum simulati...
Article
We perform two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the heteronuclear CsYb molecule to measure the binding energies of near-threshold vibrational levels of the X2Σ1/2+ molecular ground state. We report results for Cs133Yb170, Cs133Yb173, and Cs133Yb174, in each case determining the energy of several vibrational levels including the least-bound s...
Preprint
Full-text available
We perform two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the heteronuclear CsYb molecule to measure the binding energies of near-threshold vibrational levels of the $X~^{2}\Sigma_{1/2}^{+}$ molecular ground state. We report results for $^{133}$Cs$^{170}$Yb, $^{133}$Cs$^{173}$Yb and $^{133}$Cs$^{174}$Yb, in each case determining the energy of several...