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arXiv:1204.3464 · New Journal of Physics

Long-range transport of ultracold atoms in a far-detuned one-dimensional optical lattice

Thomas Middelmann, Stephan Falke, Christian Lisdat, Uwe Sterr

Published Jul 11, 2012• 23 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a novel method for transporting ultracold atoms in a focused optical lattice over macroscopic distances of many Rayleigh ranges. With this method ultracold atoms were transported over 5 cm in 250 ms without significant atom loss or heating. By translating the interference pattern together with the beam geometry, the trap parameters are maintained over the full transport range. Thus, the presented method is well suited for tightly focused optical lattices that have sufficient trap depth only close to the focus. Tight focusing is usually required for far-detuned optical traps or traps that require high laser intensity for other reasons. The transport time is short and thus compatible with the operation of an optical lattice clock in which atoms are probed in a well-designed environment spatially separated from the preparation and detection region.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/14/7/073020

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We present a novel method for transporting ultracold atoms in a focused optical lattice over macroscopic distances of many Rayleigh ranges. With this method ultracold atoms were transported over 5 cm in 250 ms without significant atom loss or heating. By translating the interference pattern together with the beam geometry, the trap parameters are maintained over the full transport range. Thus, the presented method is well suited for tightly focused optical lattices that have sufficient trap depth only close to the focus. Tight focusing is usually required for far-detuned optical traps or traps that require high laser intensity for other reasons. The transport time is short and thus compatible with the operation of an optical lattice clock in which atoms are probed in a well-designed environment spatially separated from the preparation and detection region.
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Abstract We report our method for transporting ultracold atoms over macroscopic distances and trapping them back in a vertical mixed trap, consisting of the superposition of a vertical lattice and a transverse confinement beam. The transport is performed with Bloch oscillations allowing us to move up to 25 % of a sub-micro-Kelvin atomic cloud on a distance of the order of 30 cm, without excessive heating and with an excellent control of its final position. The efficiency is lowered to about 10 % after trapping them in the vertical mixed trap during extended times.
Efficient transport of cold atoms is essential for continuous operation, enabling applications ranging from atomic lasers to continuously operated qubits. However, deep potentials required to overcome vibrations, axial trap nonuniformity and insufficient cooling have limited transport of cold atoms near quantum degeneracy. Here we demonstrate rapid optical transport of cold atoms to Bose-Einstein condensation using a moving optical lattice formed by two Bessel beams. A gas of 3×1053 \times 10^53×105 ytterbium atoms at a temperature of 340 340\,340nK is transported over 34 34\,34cm in 350 350\,350ms with efficiency over 60%60\%60%. Furthermore, a degenerate gas of 1×1051 \times 10^51×105 atoms with a 40%40\%40% condensate fraction emerges from the phase synchronization process driven by atomic interactions. This demonstration enables the fast preparation of ultracold atomic beams and large-scale atom arrays for quantum sensing, simulation and computing.
We present an optical setup with focus-tunable lenses to dynamically control the waist and focus position of a laser beam, in which we transport a trapped ultracold cloud of 87 Rb over a distance of . The scheme allows us to shift the focus position at constant waist, providing uniform trapping conditions over the full transport length. The fraction of atoms that are transported over the entire distance comes near to unity, while the heating of the cloud is in the range of a few microkelvin. We characterize the position stability of the focus and show that residual drift rates in focus position can be compensated for by counteracting with the tunable lenses. Beyond being a compact and robust scheme to transport ultracold atoms, the reported control of laser beams makes dynamic tailoring of trapping potentials possible. As an example, we steer the size of the atomic cloud by changing the waist size of the dipole beam.
Ultracold atoms in a moving optical lattice with high controllability are a feasible platform to research the transport phenomenon. Here, we study the transport process of ultracold atoms at the DDD band in a one-dimensional optical lattice and manipulate the transport of superposition states with different superposition weights of SSS-band and DDD-band atoms. In the experiment, we first load ultracold atoms into an optical lattice using the shortcut method and then accelerate the optical lattice by scanning the phase of lattice beams. The atomic transport at the DDD band and SSS band is demonstrated, respectively. The group velocity of atoms at the DDD band is opposite to that at the SSS band. By preparing superposition states with different superposition weights of the DDD-band and SSS-band atoms, we realize the manipulation of atomic group velocity from positive to negative, and observe the quantum interference between atoms at different bands. The influence of the lattice depth and acceleration on the transport process is also studied. Moreover, the multiorbital simulations are coincident with the experimental results. Our paper sheds light on the transport process of ultracold atoms at higher bands in optical lattices and provides a useful method to manipulate the transport of atomic superposition states.