Laser induced trapping of excitons in coupled quantum wells

Optical trapping and manipulation of neutral particles plays a major role in single particle studies in physics, chemistry, and biology [1]. An exciting recent outgrowth of the technique has been the experimental implementation of atom Bose- Einstein Condensation [2,3]. In this contribution, we report proposal and demonstration of laser induced trapping for a new system - a cold gas of excitons in coupled quantum wells. We report trapping a cold gas of excitons in laser induced traps and on the formation of a highly degenerate Bose gas of excitons in the trap. [1] A.~Ashkin, {\it IEEE Journal on Selected Items in Quantum Electronics\/} {\bf 6}, 841 (2000). [2] E.~A. Cornell, C.~E. Wieman, {\it Rev. Mod. Phys.\/} {\bf 74}, 875 (2002). [3] W.~Ketterle, {\it Rev. Mod. Phys.\/} {\bf 74}, 1131 (2002).