We demonstrate a combined magneto-optical trap and imaging system that is suitable for the investigation of cold atoms near surfaces. In particular, we are able to trap atoms close to optically scattering surfaces and to image them with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. We also demonstrate a simple magneto-optical atom cloud launching method. We anticipate that this system will be useful for a range of experimental studies of novel atom-surface interactions and atom trap miniaturization. .
We demonstrate a combined magneto-optical trap and imaging system that is suitable for the investigation of cold atoms near surfaces. In particular, we are able to trap atoms close to optically scattering surfaces and to image them with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. We also demonstrate a simple magneto-optical atom cloud launching method. We anticipate that this system will be useful for a range of experimental studies of novel atom-surface interactions and atom trap miniaturization. .
Optical traps, including those used in atomic physics, cold chemistry, and quantum science, are widely used in the research on cold atoms and molecules. Owing to their microscopic structure and excellent operational capability, optical traps have been proposed for cold atom experiments involving complex physical systems, which generally induce violent background scattering. In this study, using a background-free imaging scheme in cavity quantum electrodynamics systems, a cold atomic ensemble was accurately prepared below a fiber cavity and loaded into an optical trap for transfer into the cavity. By satisfying the demanding requirements for the background-free imaging scheme in optical traps, cold atoms in an optical trap were detected with a high signal-to-noise ratio while maintaining atomic loading. The cold atoms were then transferred into the fiber cavity using an optical trap, and the vacuum Rabi splitting was measured, facilitating relevant research on cavity quantum electrodynamics. This method can be extended to related experiments involving cold atoms and molecules in complex physical systems using optical traps.
Ultracold atomic gases can be utilised as extremely sensitive probes of their surrounding environment. In particular, samples of ultracold atoms confined using chip-based microtraps are an ideal tool for mapping electric and magnetic field landscapes. Over the course of this thesis, a new experiment capable of performing surface microscopy using magnetically trapped clouds of cold rubidium-87 atoms has been built. The focus of the work is on the design and construction of the experimental system, which must incorporate many different aspects for manipulating thermal atomic gases, with a view to positioning them at sub-micron distances from special surfaces. This reduced atom-surface separation is necessary for implementing a high resolution, high sensitivity magnetic field sensor with cold atoms. Although current microfabrication techniques easily enable trapping at distances on the order of micrometres, several distance-dependent surface effects - such as the Casimir-Polder force, Johnson-Nyquist noise, and stray potentials - eventually impede magnetic trapping at the sub-micron level. These surface effects can greatly modify the confining potentials, which reduces the trap depth and consequently leads to an additional loss rate of atoms from the trap. We have explored the possibility of using special surfaces such as nano-membranes of silicon nitride and graphene, which have reduced atom- surface interactions, to enable trapping distances at the sub-micron level. A multilayer printed circuit board chip has been designed to form an initial magnetic trap and then transport the cloud of atoms to a desired location over the samples. This chip, along with various samples, is mounted on a custom-made electrical feedthrough designed to make connections to all conductor that are inside the vacuum chamber. The initial cloud of cold atoms can then be prepared in the central region of the chip and delivered to the location of the samples on either side. The experimental system is able to routinely capture over 10^8 rubidium-87 atoms at a temperature of 80 micro-Kelvin in a magneto-optical trap using a novel scheme of five laser beams. A method is demonstrated for enhancing the atom number in the magneto-optical traps by a factor of two by using laser beams with two slightly different frequencies. Atoms from the magneto-optical trap are then transferred to a purely magnetic trap formed by the wires on the printed circuit board chip. Time-dependent currents in the chip wires then create a dynamic potential, which is shown to successfully transport the atomic sample over a distance of 12 millimetre with minimal atom loss. This thesis describes the development of the apparatus in detail, along with careful characterisation of the cold cloud at various stages of the experimental sequence. Initial results on the long distance atom transport are presented. Finally, the experimental results of the two frequency magneto-optical trap for atom number improvement are discussed.
Recently, cold atoms in lattices blossomed as good candidates to mimic the prop- erties of electrons in solid state systems and to simulate other quantum systems. However, experimental techniques currently use optical lattices in the far-field. This limit the lattice spacing to λ/2, thus the relevant energy scale (tunneling and interaction), making it difficult to enter deeply into the proper quantum regimes to observe magnetic quantum correlations or strongly correlated phases. Our project aims at reducing the lattice period to bridge the gap between solid state ( ̊A) and far field lattice (500nm) by developing an hybrid quantum system of Bose and Fermi quantum gas in close proximity of a nano-structured surface generating sub-wavelength lattice potentials. To push toward this goal, we first developed a novel method to transport and then trap an ultracold atomic cloud in close vicinity of a surface. We will discuss about the early stage atom-chip produced, and report on some tests about the transport sequence. By measuring the power spectral density of the trap parameters, we can predict the noise- induce heating of the trapped cloud. In order to work with such system, one need to be able to address individually each sites with a resolution under the standard PSF limit. We implemented a tunable sub-wavelength imaging system with a theoretical resolution of 30nm that we used to resolve the wave-packet of a cloud in a single lattice site. This scheme involves two superimposed optical lattices, one at 1064nm and one at 1529nm, whose interfringe can be tuned. We present hereafter the experimental setup in detail and show interesting results we obtained.
A two-color magneto-optical trap (MOT) for trapping cesium (Cs) atoms is experimentally realized. This two-color MOT employs the radiation forces due to photon scattering from the Cs 6P(3/2) F' = 5 - 8S(1/2) F" = 4 excited-state transition, which replaced one pair of the three pairs of cooling/trapping laser beams operating on a single-photon red detuning to the Cs 6S(1/2) F = 4 - 6P(3/2) F' = 5 cycling transition in a standard six-beam Cs MOT, and can cool and trap atoms on both the red-detuning and blue-detuning sides of the two-photon resonance. Employing the two-color MOT, the background-free fluorescence detection of trapped atoms has been demonstrated. This technique will be useful for observation of weak fluorescence signal radiated from single atoms in MOT.
Laser cooled and trapped atoms have been the workhorse of atomic physics for the past four decades. The predominant method has been the highly versatile Magneto-Optical Trap. We describe an alternative laser trap involving a simple geometry of collimated laser beams that provides both a velocity and position dependent restoring force such that a dense cloud of cold atoms is formed. This technique produces similar atom number (>106) and density (1010\,atoms/cm3) to the Magneto-Optical Trap, albeit with \emph{no magnetic field}. The beam geometry is compatible with conventional sub-Doppler cooling techniques, allowing the trapped cloud to be cooled to <10μK. We demonstrate the validity and robustness of the trap by capturing 87Rb atoms directly from the background vapor and provide a theoretical discussion of the underlying principles. This trap has many unique properties that make it highly suitable for quantum sensing, timing, and computing applications as well as a new tool in fundamental science and metrology.
We describe several novel techniques for the optical trapping of ultracold atoms and for the production of wavelength-stabilised, coherent light at the frequencies required for use in atomic physics experiments. The greater part of this thesis deals with work towards the creation of regular arrays of microscopic optical dipole traps formed at the foci of truncated spherical cavities in a metallic film, in which the inter-site spacing can be set anywhere between one and several hundred micrometers. Arrays of such cavities are synthesised and structurally characterised via optical and electron microscopy, and numerical simulations of the light intensity distribution near the foci of such cavities under normal illumination are used to confirm their suitability for dipole trap production. A method for the construction of arrays of magneto-optical traps based on such structures is proposed and theoretically examined, and some preliminary experimental work towards the synthesis of the required microstructures is also described. Possible approaches to the loading of such traps and the imaging of the atoms contained therein are discussed - experimental work towards ballistic atom transfer from a specialised form of magneto-optical trap that can be formed close to a microstructured surface is carried out, and the efficacy of wavelength-selective fluorescence imaging as a means of reducing the effects of background scatter from the surface is experimentally demonstrated. Further work described herein includes the proposal and experimental demonstration of two novel techniques for the removal of the carrier wave from a phase-modulated laser beam, one of which is based on a fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer that is shown to be an effective device for splitting or combining beams of nearly equal frequencies. A spontaneous-force based atom trapping mechanism that does not rely on the use of a magnetic field, but rather on spatially-dependent optical pumping between different metastable atomic states, is also proposed, and a proof of principle experiment is carried out to demonstrate the validity of the suggested mechanism. We find that this trapping scheme allows the spatial dependence of the trapping force to be tailored with a greater degree of flexibility than is usually possible with magneto-optical trapping, and that it is also capable of producing traps with stronger spring constants than are typically achievable with magneto-optical trapping under realistic experimental constraints.