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The development of new laser beam shaping methods is important in a variety of fields within optics, atomic physics and biophotonics. Spatial light modulators offer a highly versatile method of time-dependent beam shaping, based on imprinting a phase profile onto an incident laser beam that determines the intensity in the trapping plane laser field. The calculation of the required phase is a well-known inverse problem, which can be tackled with different approaches. Our method based on conjugate gradient minimisation [1] not only allows the calculation of smooth and accurate intensity profiles suitable for trapping cold atoms, but can also be used to generate multi-wavelength traps [2] and for simultaneous control over both the intensity and the phase of the light [3], with exceptionally high reconstruction fidelity. References: [1] T Harte, et al., "Conjugate gradient minimisation approach to generating holographic traps for ultracold atoms" Opt. Express 22, 26548 (2014) [2] D Bowman, et al., "Multi-wavelength holography with a single spatial light modulator for ultracold atom experiments" Opt. Express 23, 8365 (2015) [3] D Bowman, et al., "High-fidelity phase and amplitude control of phase-only computer generated holograms using conjugate gradient minimisation" Opt. Express 25, 11692 (2017) Postprint Non

Speckle patterns result from the interference of multiple reflections in disordered media. This is regarded as a randomization process which destroys information contained within the initial light beam and is deleterious to many optical systems. Indeed, many engineers study speckle to remove its effect. Intriguingly however, the processes that produce the speckle are entirely linear, and there is growing recognition that this complex pattern is rich in useful information on both the incident laser source and the environment, with startling potential uses. We will demonstrate our recent results [1], which show that the speckle pattern produced by light propagation in an integrating sphere can be used as a sensitive wavemeter, with a resolution below 1fm. Moreover, this can be used to stabilize the wavelength of a laser on a timescale and to a stability applicable for laser cooling of cold atoms. Reference: [1] N. K. Metzger, et al., “Harnessing speckle for a sub-femtometre resolved broadband wavemeter and laser stabilization”, Nature Communications 8, 15610 (2017) Postprint Non

With the advent of spatially resolved fluorescence imaging in quantum gas microscopes (see e.g. [1]), it is now possible to directly image glassy phases and probe the local effects of disorder in a highly controllable setup. Here we present numerical calculations using a spatially resolved local mean-field theory, show that it captures the essential physics of the disordered system, and use it to simulate the density distributions seen in single-shot fluorescence microscopy [2]. From these simulated images we extract local properties of the phases which are measurable by a quantum gas microscope and show that unambiguous detection of the Bose glass is possible. In particular, we show that experimental determination of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter is possible in a strongly correlated quantum system using existing experiments. We also suggest modifications to the experiments by using spatial light modulators (see [3] and references therein) to tailor the lattice, which will allow further properties of the Bose glass to be measured. References: [1] E Haller, et al., "Single-atom imaging of fermions in a quantum-gas microscope" Nature Physics 11, 738 (2015) [2] S J Thomson, et al., "Measuring the Edwards-Anderson order parameter of the Bose glass: A quantum gas microscope approach" Phys. Rev. A 94, 051601(R) (2016) [3] F Buccheri, et al., "Holographic optical traps for atom-based topological Kondo devices" New J. Phys. 18, 075012 (2016) Postprint Non