Nieliniowa optyka atomów

Research on nonlinear atom optics is reviewed. The original methods used to obtain Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) in experiments at JILA and MIT are briefly described. Experimental realization of BEC in atomic gases led to the discovery of interesting new phenomena. It transpired that atoms can exhibit photon-like collective behavior. Indeed, many classical nonlinear optical effects were duplicated using atoms, e.g. four wave mixing, parametric processes as well as soliton propagation and metamorphosis. Nonlinear optics and BEC are theoretically much more similar than one might expect for such disparate fields. Indeed, in the experiments covered here, atoms and photons often change places.