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arXiv:1112.0899 · Physical Review A

Creating atom-number states around tapered optical fibers by loading from an optical lattice

Tara Hennessy, Thomas Busch

Published May 22, 2012• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We describe theoretically a setup in which a tapered optical nanofiber is introduced into an optical lattice potential for cold atoms. First, we consider the disturbance to the geometry of the lattice potential due to scattering of the lattice lasers from the dielectric fiber surface and show that the resulting distortion to the lattice can be minimized by placing the fiber at an appropriate position in the lattice. We then calculate the modifications of the local potentials that are achievable by transmitting off-resonant light through the fiber. The availability of such a technique holds the potential to deterministically create and address small well-defined samples of atoms in the evanescent field of the tapered nanofiber.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.85.053418

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We describe theoretically a setup in which a tapered optical nanofiber is introduced into an optical lattice potential for cold atoms. First, we consider the disturbance to the geometry of the lattice potential due to scattering of the lattice lasers from the dielectric fiber surface and show that the resulting distortion to the lattice can be minimized by placing the fiber at an appropriate position in the lattice. We then calculate the modifications of the local potentials that are achievable by transmitting off-resonant light through the fiber. The availability of such a technique holds the potential to deterministically create and address small well-defined samples of atoms in the evanescent field of the tapered nanofiber.
Optical nanofibers – very thin, tapered optical fibers where the waist diameter is less than the propagating light wavelength – have been shown to be very useful tools for atom-light interactions. Their small size and relative ease of integration into optical fiber-based experimental setups, in addition to their minimal perturbation on magneto-optically trapped cold atoms, have ensured their adoption into cold atom physics. Here, we will discuss some recent applications of optical nanofibers to manipulate, trap, and control cold 87Rb atoms in ground or Rydberg states. We will present some recent experimental and theoretical results related to the interactions between the atoms and the optical nanofiber field and introduce some of the limitations observed.
Tapered optical fibers with a nanofiber waist are versatile tools for interfacing light and matter. In this context, laser-cooled atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber are of particular interest: They exhibit both long ground-state coherence times and efficient coupling to fiber-guided fields. Here, we demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, and the storage of fiber-guided optical pulses in an ensemble of cold atoms trapped in a nanofiber-based optical lattice. We measure a slow-down of light pulses to group velocities of 50 m/s. Moreover, we store optical pulses at the single photon level and retrieve them on demand in the fiber after 2 microseconds with an overall efficiency of (3.0 +/- 0.4) %. Our results show that nanofiber-based interfaces for cold atoms have great potential for the realization of building blocks for future optical quantum information networks.
We present experimental techniques and recently demonstrated results related to the optimization and characterization of our recently demonstrated nanofiber-based atom trap. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice that is created using a two-color evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber. For this purpose, the polarization state of the trapping light fields has to be properly adjusted. We demonstrate that this can be accomplished by analyzing the light scattered by the nanofiber. Furthermore, we show that loading the nanofiber trap from a magneto-optical trap leads to sub-Doppler temperatures of the trapped atomic ensemble and yields a sub-Poissonian distribution of the number of trapped atoms per trapping site.
Trapping and optically interfacing laser-cooled neutral atoms are essential requirements for their use in advanced quantum technologies. Here we simultaneously realize both of these tasks with cesium atoms interacting with a multicolor evanescent field surrounding an optical nanofiber. The atoms are localized in a one-dimensional optical lattice about 200 nm above the nanofiber surface and can be efficiently interrogated with a resonant light field sent through the nanofiber. Our technique opens the route towards the direct integration of laser-cooled atomic ensembles within fiber networks, an important prerequisite for large scale quantum communication schemes. Moreover, it is ideally suited to the realization of hybrid quantum systems that combine atoms with, e.g., solid state quantum devices.
We investigate trapping geometries for cold, neutral atoms that can be created in the evanescent field of a tapered optical fibre by combining the fundamental mode with one of the next lowest possible modes, namely the HE(21) mode. Counter propagating red-detuned HE(21) modes are combined with a blue-detuned HE(11) fundamental mode to form a potential in the shape of four intertwined spirals. By changing the polarization from circular to linear in each of the two counter-propagating HE(21) modes simultaneously the 4-helix configuration can be transformed into a lattice configuration. The modification to the 4-helix configuration due to unwanted excitation of the the TE(01) and TM(01) modes is also discussed.
We describe and demonstrate a method to deterministically trap single atoms near nanoscale solid-state objects. The trap is formed by the interference of an optical tweezer and its reflection from the nano object, creating a one-dimensional optical lattice where the first lattice site is at z0 ∼ λ/4 from the surface. Using a tapered optical fiber as the nanoscopic object, we characterize the loading into different lattice sites by means of the AC-Stark shift induced by a guided fiber mode. We demonstrate a loading efficiency of 94(6)% into the first lattice site, and measure the cooperativity for the emission of the atom into the guided mode of the nanofiber. We show that by tailoring the dimensions of the nanofiber the distance of the trap to the surface can be adjusted. This method is applicable to a large variety of nanostructures and represents a promising starting point for interfacing single atoms with arbitrary nanoscale solid-state systems.