Cavity-enhanced superradiant Rayleigh scattering with ultracold and Bose-Einstein condensed atoms

We report on the observation of collective atomic recoil lasing and superradiant Rayleigh scattering with ultracold and Bose-Einstein condensed atoms in an optical ring cavity. Both phenomena are based on instabilities evoked by the collective interaction of light with cold atomic gases. This publication clarifies the link between the two effects. The observation of superradiant behavior with thermal clouds as hot as several tens of mu K proves that the phenomena are driven by the cooperative dynamics of the atoms, which is strongly enhanced by the presence of the ring cavity.