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Updated: Apr 12, 2026

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Quantum threshold for optomechanical self-structuring in a Bose-Einstein condensate
G R M Robb1, E Tesio1, G-L Oppo1
1SUPA and Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Theoretical analysis of the optomechanics of degenerate bosonic atoms with a single feedback mirror shows that self-structuring occurs only above an input threshold that is quantum mechanical in origin. This threshold also implies a lower limit to the size (period) of patterns that can be produced in a condensate for a given pump intensity. These thresholds are interpreted as due to the quantum rigidity of Bose-Einstein condensates, which has no classical counterpart. Above the threshold, the condensate self-organizes into an ordered supersolid state with a spatial period self-selected by optical diffraction.
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