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arXiv:1112.6136 · Physical Review A

Controlled manipulation of light by cooperative response of atoms in an optical lattice

S. D. Jenkins, Janne Ruostekoski

Published Sep 11, 2012• 133 citations
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Abstract

We show that atoms in an optical lattice can respond cooperatively to resonant incident light and that such a response can be employed for precise control and manipulation of light on a subwavelength scale. Specific collective excitation modes of the system that result from strong light-mediated dipole-dipole interactions can be addressed by tailoring the spatial phase profile of the incident light. We demonstrate how the collective response can be used to produce optical excitations at well-isolated sites on the lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.031602

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Acta Sinica Quantum Optica•Jan 1, 2008•0 citations
We show that atoms in an optical lattice can respond cooperatively to resonant incident light and that such a response can be employed for precise control and manipulation of light on a subwavelength scale. Specific collective excitation modes of the system that result from strong light-mediated dipole-dipole interactions can be addressed by tailoring the spatial phase profile of the incident light. We demonstrate how the collective response can be used to produce optical excitations at well-isolated sites on the lattice.
We study strong, light-mediated, resonant dipole-dipole interactions in two-dimensional planar lattices of cold atoms. We provide a detailed analysis for the description of the dipolar point emitter lattice plane as a ``superatom'' whose response is similar to electromagnetically induced transparency but which exhibits an ultranarrow collective size-dependent subradiant resonance linewidth. The superatom model provides intuitively simple descriptions for the spectral response of the array, including the complete reflection, full transmission, narrow Fano resonances, and asymptotic expressions for the resonance linewidths of the collective eigenmodes. We propose a protocol to transfer almost the entire radiative excitation to a single correlated subradiant eigenmode in a lattice and show that the medium obtained by stacked lattice arrays can form a cooperative magnetometer. Such a magnetometer utilizes similar principles as magnetometers based on the electromagnetically induced transparency. The accuracy of the cooperative magnetometer, however, is not limited by the single-atom resonance linewidth but the much narrower collective linewidth that results from the strong dipole-dipole interactions.
Chiroptical responses in atomic systems are usually weak, as they arise from the interference between electric- and much weaker magnetic-dipole transitions. We show that atoms arranged in chiral geometries can instead exhibit a strong collective chiroptical response mediated entirely by electric-dipole interactions. Using a coupled-dipole framework, we identify a regime of pronounced chiroptical response emerging at subwavelength interatomic separations, which can be tuned by the probe frequency. This enhancement is directly linked to the formation of subradiant collective modes. Our results establish a fundamental connection between geometric chirality and collective light-matter interactions, opening new pathways for engineering and exploiting chiral optical responses in atomic systems.
We determine the transmission of light through a planar atomic array beyond the limit of low light intensity that displays optical bistability in the mean-field regime. We develop a theory describing the intrinsic optical bistability, which is supported purely by resonant dipole-dipole interactions in free space, showing how bistable light amplitudes exhibit both strong cooperative and weak single-atom responses and how they depend on the underlying low light intensity collective excitation eigenmodes. Similarities of the theory with optical bistability in cavities are highlighted, while recurrent light scattering between atoms takes on the role of cavity mirrors. Our numerics and analytic estimates show a sharp variation in the extinction, reflectivity, and group delays of the array, with the incident light completely extinguished up to a critical intensity well beyond the low light intensity limit. Our analysis paves a way for collective nonlinear optics with cooperatively responding dense atomic ensembles.
By analyzing the parameters of electronic transitions, we show how bosonic Sr atoms in planar optical lattices can be engineered to exhibit optical magnetism and other higher-order electromagnetic multipoles that can be harnessed for wavefront control of incident light. Resonant $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\simeq}2.6\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ light for the $^{3}D_{1}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{}^{3}{P}_{0}$ transition mediates cooperative interactions between the atoms while the atoms are trapped in a deeply subwavelength optical lattice. The atoms then exhibit collective excitation eigenmodes, e.g., with a strong cooperative magnetic response at optical frequencies, despite individual atoms having negligible coupling to the magnetic component of light. We provide a detailed scheme to utilize excitations of such cooperative modes consisting of arrays of electromagnetic multipoles to form an atomic Huygens' surface, with complete $2\ensuremath{\pi}$ phase control of transmitted light and almost no reflection, allowing nearly arbitrary wavefront shaping. In the numerical examples, this is achieved by controlling the atomic level shifts of Sr with off-resonant ${^{3}P}_{J}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{^{3}D}_{1}$ transitions, which results in a simultaneous excitation of arrays of electric dipoles and electric quadrupoles or magnetic dipoles. We demonstrate the wavefront engineering for a Sr array by realizing the steering of an incident beam and generation of a baby-Skyrmion texture in the transmitted light via a topologically nontrivial transition of a Gaussian beam to a Poincar\'e beam, which contains all possible polarizations in a single cross-section.
Ordered atomic arrays with subwavelength spacing have emerged as an efficient and versatile light-matter interface, where collective interactions give rise to sets of super- and subradiant lattice states. Here, we demonstrate that highly subradiant states, so-called lattice dark states, can be individually addressed and manipulated by applying a spatial modulation of the atomic detuning. More specifically, we show that lattice dark states can be used to store and retrieve single photons with near-unit efficiency, as well as to control the temporal, frequency, and spatial degrees of freedom of the emitted electromagnetic field. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to engineer arbitrary coherent interactions between multiple dark states and thereby manipulate information stored in the lattice. These results pave the way towards quantum optics and information processing using atomic arrays.
Controlling atoms by light is important for investigating the atom-atom entanglement and atom-atom dipole interaction.It is also a key issue for quantum information.Based on our present experimental system,we propose a scheme of generating adjustable multiple optical dipole traps by using three strongly focused beams,which implies controllable optical lattice for atom manipulation.We discuss in detail the influence of the incident angle and the phase difference on the depth and position of the traps and demonstrate that the manipulation of individual atom and control of trap-trap distance are realizable.It is of great importance in studying interaction between BECs in optical lattices,atom interference and atomic dipole-dipole interaction.