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arXiv:1702.01943 · Optics Express

Calibrating high intensity absorption imaging of ultracold atoms

Klaus Hueck, Niclas Luick, Lennart Sobirey, Jonas Siegl, Thomas Lompe, Henning Moritz, Logan W. Clark, Cheng Chin

Published Apr 4, 2017• 49 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Absorption imaging of ultracold atoms is the foundation for quantitative extraction of information from experiments with ultracold atoms. Due to the limited exposure time available in these systems, the signal-to-noise ratio is largest for high intensity absorption imaging where the intensity of the imaging light is on the order of the saturation intensity. In this case, the absolute value of the intensity of the imaging light enters as an additional parameter making it more sensitive to systematic errors. Here, we present a novel and robust technique to determine the imaging beam intensity in units of the effective saturation intensity to better than 5%. We do this by measuring the momentum transferred to the atoms by the imaging light while varying its intensity. We further utilize the method to quantify the purity of the polarization of the imaging light and to determine the correct imaging detuning.

DOI
10.1364/oe.25.008670

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Absorption imaging of ultracold atoms is the foundation for quantitative extraction of information from experiments with ultracold atoms. Due to the limited exposure time available in these systems, the signal-to-noise ratio is largest for high intensity absorption imaging where the intensity of the imaging light is on the order of the saturation intensity. In this case, the absolute value of the intensity of the imaging light enters as an additional parameter making it more sensitive to systematic errors. Here, we present a novel and robust technique to determine the imaging beam intensity in units of the effective saturation intensity to better than 5%. We do this by measuring the momentum transferred to the atoms by the imaging light while varying its intensity. We further utilize the method to quantify the purity of the polarization of the imaging light and to determine the correct imaging detuning.
We describe an experimental method to calibrate an absorption imaging system for ultracold atom clouds. Optical density profiles of an atom cloud are obtained for various probe beam intensities and are analyzed to determine the correction factor for the effective probe beam intensity directly from saturation effects. We find that the temporal shape of the probe-beam pulse needs to be taken into account for a quantitative analysis of the optical density measured in saturation absorption imaging. We show that this pulse-shape effect can lead to distortion of the density profile due to its nonlinear dependence on the optical depth.
A majority of ultracold atom experiments utilize resonant absorption imaging techniques to obtain the atomic density. To make well-controlled quantitative measurements, the optical intensity of the probe beam must be precisely calibrated in units of the atomic saturation intensity I sat . In quantum gas experiments, the atomic sample is enclosed in an ultra-high vacuum system that introduces loss and limits optical access; this precludes a direct determination of the intensity. Here, we use quantum coherence to create a robust technique for measuring the probe beam intensity in units of I sat via Ramsey interferometry. Our technique characterizes the ac Stark shift of the atomic levels due to an off-resonant probe beam. Furthermore, this technique gives access to the spatial variation of the probe intensity at the location of the atomic cloud. By directly measuring the probe intensity just before the imaging sensor our method in addition yields a direct calibration of imaging system losses as well as the quantum efficiency of the sensor.
We report on a far above saturation absorption imaging technique to investigate the characteristics of dense packets of ultracold atoms. The transparency of the cloud is controlled by the incident light intensity as a result of the nonlinear response of the atoms to the probe beam. We detail our experimental procedure to calibrate the imaging system for reliable quantitative measurements and demonstrate the use of this technique to extract the profile and its spatial extent of an optically thick atomic cloud.
Absorption imaging is the foundation for quantitative measurements in experiments on ultracold atoms. This technique mainly involves capturing images of both the probing light field and the atom absorption light field. In this process, the unavoidable jitter of the probing light introduces imaging noise of fringe patterns into the atomic optical density distribution OD. In conventional fringe removal algorithms, this type of noise can be normalized by constructing an optimal reference image from multiple reference images that have been actually taken, which shares similar fringe patterns to an absorption image (Fig. (a)). Although this method works well in the region without atomic signal, they often overlook the modulation of the noise signal due to atomic absorption effects, leading to persistent residual fringes on the atom clouds. This problem becomes more pronounced with atomic density increasing. Here, we propose an enhanced fringe removal algorithm that takes into account the effects of atomic absorption, and actively modulates the intensity of the noise signal in the reference image constructed by conventional fringe removal algorithms (Fig. (b)), effectively preventing the residual fringes from forming, thus significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the atomic images. When applied to the absorption imaging of homogeneous Fermi gases with high density, as shown in Fig. (d), this new algorithm successfully reduces the relative standard deviation of optical depth characterizing atomic density fluctuations by approximately 37%, which is about 3 times the relative standard deviation by conventional algorithm. Three subgraphs in Fig. (e) show the optical depth distribution at corresponding data points labeled by square boxes in Fig. (d). Furthermore, we also use this technique to quantitatively determine the second sound in the unitary Fermi superfluid of 6Li atoms. Compared with conventional fringe removal methods, our new algorithm increases the correlation function’s contrast of the density wave nearly 4 times, therefore enhancing the intensity of the density response spectrum by approximately 15% with half the measured standard error, paving the way for quantitatively determining the speed and attenuation of the second sound. These results demonstrate that the enhanced fringe removal algorithm not only effectively suppresses fringe noise, but also facilitates the identification and detection of important physical phenomena in high-density atomic systems, such as some collective excitations and new quantum phases.
High-sensitivity imaging of ultracold atoms is often challenging when interference patterns are imprinted on the imaging light. Such image noises result in low signal-to-noise ratio and limit the capability of extracting subtle physical quantities. Here we demonstrate an advanced fringe removal algorithm for absorption imaging of ultracold atoms, which efficiently suppresses unwanted fringe patterns using a small number of sample images without taking additional reference images. The protocol is based on an image decomposition and projection method with an extended image basis. We apply this scheme to raw absorption images of degenerate Fermi gases for the measurement of atomic density fluctuations and temperatures. A quantitative analysis shows that image noises can be efficiently removed with only tens of reference images, which manifests the efficiency of our protocol. Our algorithm would be of particular interest for quantum emulation experiments in which several physical parameters need to be scanned within a limited time duration.
Abstract The accurate determination of atom numbers is an ubiquitous problem in the field of ultracold atoms. For modest atom numbers, absolute calibration techniques are available, however, for large numbers and high densities, the available techniques neglect many-body scattering processes. Here, a spatial calibration technique for time-of-flight absorption images of ultracold atomic clouds is presented. The calibration is obtained from radially averaged absorption images and we provide a practical guide to the calibration process. It is shown that the calibration coefficient scales linearly with optical density and depends on the absorbed photon number for the experimental conditions explored here. This allows for the direct inclusion of a spatially dependent calibration in the image analysis. For typical ultracold atom clouds the spatial calibration technique leads to corrections in the detected atom number up to ≈ 12 % and temperature up to ≈ 14 % in comparison to previous calibration techniques. The technique presented here addresses a major difficulty in absorption imaging of ultracold atomic clouds and prompts further theoretical work to understand the scattering processes in ultracold dense clouds of atoms for accurate atom number calibration.