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arXiv:1010.0101 · New Journal of Physics

Efficient guiding of cold atoms through a photonic band gap fiber

S. Vorrath, Sönke Möller, Patrick Windpassinger, Kai Bongs, K. Sengstock

Published Dec 9, 2010• 51 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate the first guiding of cold atoms through a 88 mm long piece of photonic band gap fiber. The guiding potential is created by a far-off resonance dipole trap propagating inside the fiber with a hollow core of 12 μm. We load the fiber from a dark spot 85 Rb magneto-optical trap and observe a peak flux of more than 10 5 atoms s −1 at a velocity of 1.5 m s −1 . With an additional reservoir optical dipole trap, a constant atomic flux of 1.5 × 10 4 atoms s −1 is sustained for more than 150 ms. These results open up interesting possibilities to study nonlinear light–matter interaction in a nearly one-dimensional geometry and pave the way for guided matter wave interferometry.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/12/12/123015

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•Jan 1, 2007•0 citations
We demonstrate the first guiding of cold atoms through a 88 mm long piece of photonic band gap fiber. The guiding potential is created by a far-off resonance dipole trap propagating inside the fiber with a hollow core of 12 μm. We load the fiber from a dark spot 85 Rb magneto-optical trap and observe a peak flux of more than 10 5 atoms s −1 at a velocity of 1.5 m s −1 . With an additional reservoir optical dipole trap, a constant atomic flux of 1.5 × 10 4 atoms s −1 is sustained for more than 150 ms. These results open up interesting possibilities to study nonlinear light–matter interaction in a nearly one-dimensional geometry and pave the way for guided matter wave interferometry.
We present a thorough experimental investigation of the loading process of laser-cooled atoms from a magneto-optical trap into an optical dipole trap located inside a hollow-core photonic bandgap fiber, followed by propagation of the atoms therein. This, e.g., serves to identify limits to the loading efficiency and thus optical depth which is a key parameter for applications in quantum information technology. Although only limited access in 1D is available to probe atoms inside such a fiber, we demonstrate that a detailed spatially resolved characterization of the loading and trapping process along the fiber axis is possible by appropriate modification of probing techniques combined with theoretical analysis. Specifically, we demonstrate the loading of up to $2.1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ atoms with a transfer efficiency of 2.12.1%2.1 during the course of 50 ms and a peak loading rate of $4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{3}$ atoms ${\mathrm{ms}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ resulting in a peak atomic number density on the order of ${10}^{12}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. Furthermore, we determine the evolution of the spatial density (profile) and ensemble temperature as it approaches its steady-state value of $T=1400\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$, as well as loss rates, axial velocity and acceleration. The spatial resolution along the fiber axis reaches a few millimeters, which is much smaller than the typical fiber length in experiments. We compare our results to other fiber-based as well as free-space optical dipole traps and discuss the potential for further improvements.
In the field of ultracold quantum gases atom optics has been established as a completely new discipline in the last years. This led to fundmentally new results in the field of research of atom optical systems. In modern experiments especially strongly interacting nonlinear systems are of great interest. Such a strongly correlated system consists of a cold atomic quantum gas and a light field both embedded into a nonlinear medium. This thesis documents for the first time that a two-dimensional photonic crystal fiber can be used as a novel nonlinear medium for atom optical experiments. It shows that cold atoms can be guided optically through this fiber with high efficiency and density. In order to study this system a new experiment for creating cold optically guided atoms has been built up. This complex experimental setup consists of high-stable laser sources, optics and electronics for generating, manipulating and detecting cold atomic rubidium ensembles as well as further elements for implementing photonic band gap fibers as matter wave guides. One focal point of the thesis has been the detailed investigation of the atomic flux through the fiber. This analysis demonstrates that the experimental parameters governing the atomic flux are in a good agreement with a self-developed numerical model as well as with other theoretical predictions. For applying this system as injector for other quantum gas experiments or for atom interferometry, a continuous, coherent atomic flux is necessary. Studies demonstrate that such a regime can be reached by using an additional dipole trap in front of the fiber. By properly chosen trap parameters this trap can be used as a reservoir of cold atoms. With this optical setup the atomic flux can be kept up significantly longer than in a pulsed guiding system. Further the experimental possibilities of this nearly one-dimensional, cold, dense and tightly embedded atomic system are of great interest. The analysis shows that because of the generated atomic density and the energetic distribution of the atoms in the fiber potential a coherent atom optics is feasible with this system. So this experiment paves the way towards a novel, coherent matter wave guide. By exploiting the strongly photonic interaction in the fiber other physical regimes especially in the field of nonlinear optics can be reached. This includes for example the studies of four-wave-mixing processes in the photonic band gap fiber. In a recent theoretical paper it has been suggested to use the tunability of the atom-light-interaction to reach a photonic regime of extremely strong repulsion. This possibly leads to decelerated or even stopped light forming a so-called Tonks-Girardeau gas.
Cold atoms trapped and guided in hollow-core photonic crystal fibers provide a scalable diffraction-free setting for atom–light interactions for quantum technologies. However, due to the mismatch of the depth and spatial extension of the trapping potential from free space to the fiber, the number of cold atoms in the fiber is mainly determined by the loading process from free space to waveguide confinement. Here, we provide a numerical study of the loading dynamics of cold atoms into a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber. We use the Monte Carlo method to simulate the trajectories of an ensemble of cold atoms from free space trapping potential to optical potential inside a hollow-core fiber and calculate the temperature, loading efficiency, and geometry of the ensemble. We also study the noise sources that cause heating and a loss of atoms during the process. Our result could be used to design and optimize the loading process of cold atoms into a hollow-core fiber for cold atom experiments.
We theoretically investigate the process of coupling cold atoms into the core of a hollow-core photonic-crystal optical fiber using a blue-detuned Laguerre-Gaussian beam. In contrast to the use of a red-detuned Gaussian beam to couple the atoms, the blue-detuned hollow beam can confine cold atoms to the darkest regions of the beam, thereby minimizing shifts in the internal states and making the guide highly robust to heating effects. This single optical beam is used as both a funnel and a guide to maximize the number of atoms into the fiber. In the proposed experiment, Rb atoms are loaded into a magneto-optical trap (MOT) above a vertically oriented optical fiber. We observe a gravito-optical trapping effect for atoms with high orbital momentum around the trap axis, which prevents atoms from coupling to the fiber: these atoms lack the kinetic energy to escape the potential and are thus trapped in the laser funnel indefinitely. We find that by reducing the dipolar force to the point at which the trapping effect just vanishes, it is possible to optimize the coupling of atoms into the fiber. Our simulations predict that by using a low-power (2.5 mW) and far-detuned (300 GHz) Laguerre-Gaussian beam with a 20-$\ensuremath{\mu}$m-radius core hollow fiber, it is possible to couple 11% of the atoms from a MOT 9 mm away from the fiber. When the MOT is positioned farther away, coupling efficiencies over 50% can be achieved with larger core fibers.
Cold atoms confined inside a hollow core photonic crystal fiber with core diameter of a few photon wavelengths are a promising medium for studying nonlinear optical interactions at extremely low light levels. The high electric field intensity per photon, large optical depths, and interaction lengths not limited by diffraction are some of the unique features of this system. We describe recent progress in our experiment that uses a combination of magnetic trapping and a red-detuned optical dipole trap to transfer cold rubidium atoms into the hollow-core fiber. We present data on transfer efficiencies as well as preliminary experiments towards nonlinear optics with few photon pulses.