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arXiv:1104.5220 · Physical Review A

Laser-cooled atoms inside a hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber

Michal Bajcsy, Sebastian Hofferberth, Thibault Peyronel, Vlatko Balić, Qiyu Liang, Alexander S. Zibrov, Vladan Vuletić, Mikhail D. Lukin

Published Jun 23, 2011• 95 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We describe the loading of laser-cooled rubidium atoms into a single-mode hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber. Inside the fiber, the atoms are confined by a far-detuned optical trap and probed by a weak resonant beam. We describe different loading methods and compare their trade-offs in terms of implementation complexity and atom-loading efficiency. The most efficient procedure results in loading of $~30$,000 rubidium atoms, which creates a medium with an optical depth of $~180$ inside the fiber. Compared to our earlier study [1] this represents a sixfold increase in the maximum achieved optical depth in this system.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.83.063830

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We describe the loading of laser-cooled rubidium atoms into a single-mode hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber. Inside the fiber, the atoms are confined by a far-detuned optical trap and probed by a weak resonant beam. We describe different loading methods and compare their trade-offs in terms of implementation complexity and atom-loading efficiency. The most efficient procedure results in loading of  30~30 30,000 rubidium atoms, which creates a medium with an optical depth of  180~180 180 inside the fiber. Compared to our earlier study [1] this represents a sixfold increase in the maximum achieved optical depth in this system.
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.
We report on the preparation of a one-dimensional ultracold medium in a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber, reaching an effective optical depth of 1000(150). We achieved this extreme optical depth by transferring atoms from a magneto-optical trap into a far-detuned optical dipole trap inside the hollow-core fiber, yielding up to 2.5(3)×10(5) atoms inside the core with a loading efficiency of 2.5(6)%. The preparation of an ultracold medium of such huge optical depth paves the way toward new applications in quantum optics and nonlinear optics.
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 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.