University of Texas, Austin

Title: New frontiers in controlling the motion of matter with light: from single atoms to neurons

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss recent experiments in my group on the interactions and control of matter with light. At the atomic level we have been studying the interface between quantum mechanics and nonlinear dynamics. I will describe some recent experiments on atomic motion in "optical billiards", a new system that we developed, and indicate some future directions for quantum dynamics and control in many-body systems. In the past year we have also extended our work to the realm of biophysics in collaboration with the group of Josef Kas. We have shown experimentally that we can use weak light forces to precisely guide the direction of neuron growth, which opens many exciting directions for the future.

Biographical Sketch

Mark Raizen did his undergraduate work at Tel-Aviv University and obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at The University of Texas at Austin in 1989 under the supervision of Jeff Kimble. He then went to NIST in Boulder as a postdoc in the group of David Wineland. Mark was hired as an assistant professor at The Univ. of Texas at Austin in 1991. He now holds the position of Sid. W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair in Physics and Professor of Physics. His honors and awards include NSF and ONR Young Investigator Awards, Sloan Foundation Fellow, Fellow of APS and Fellow of OSA, and the 1999 I. I. Rabi Prize in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the APS.