Spin state of an elementary particle or even atoms have inherent quantum identity with no analog in classical physics, yet “spin” is something we all understand naturally. In this talk, I shall describe our recent experiments at RRI exploring the atomic spins both at room temperature and at extremely low temperatures in micro-Kelvin range achieved only through laser cooling and trapping techniques. I shall also indicate, how using light, we do indeed take atoms for a “spin” in the figurative sense. There are many applications such as development of quantum sensors using these types of measurements.

I shall also touch upon many examples in the recent past where ultra-cold atoms and atom-light interactions have been used successfully to explore exotic phenomena in quantum mechanics – a class of study known as “quantum simulations”. I shall also present the performance of our newly built experimental system to study a mixture of mass and spin-imbalanced ultra-cold atoms. The focus will be on the many body physics and dynamics of cold atoms in optical and magnetic fields. A major new direction of the study of many body physics is using arbitrary shape of the trapping potential. I shall show the “structured” optical tweezers for atoms being developed in our laboratory at RRI to explore the truly exotic light matter interactions.

Lab website: https://wwws.rri.res.in/~qumix