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arXiv:1711.01093 · Physical Review A

Trapping and cooling particles using a moving atom diode and an atomic mirror

Tom Dowdall, A. Ruschhaupt

Published Jan 17, 2018• 0 citations
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Abstract

We propose a theoretical scheme for atomic cooling, i.e., the compression of both velocity and position distribution of particles in motion. This is achieved by collisions of the particles with a combination of a moving atomic mirror and a moving atom diode. An atom diode is a unidirectional barrier, i.e., an optical device through which an atom can pass in one direction only. We show that the efficiency of the scheme depends on the trajectory of the diode and the mirror. We examine both the classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of the scheme, along with the numerical simulations to show the efficiency in each case.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.97.013412

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•Jan 1, 2008•0 citations
We propose a theoretical scheme for atomic cooling, i.e., the compression of both velocity and position distribution of particles in motion. This is achieved by collisions of the particles with a combination of a moving atomic mirror and a moving atom diode. An atom diode is a unidirectional barrier, i.e., an optical device through which an atom can pass in one direction only. We show that the efficiency of the scheme depends on the trajectory of the diode and the mirror. We examine both the classical and quantum mechanical descriptions of the scheme, along with the numerical simulations to show the efficiency in each case.
We present a generalized two-level scheme for an ``atom diode,'' namely, a laser device that lets a two-level ground-state atom pass in one direction, say from left to right, but not in the opposite direction. The laser field is composed of two lateral state-selective mirror regions and a central pumping region. We demonstrate the robustness of the scheme and propose a physical realization. It is shown that the inclusion of a counterintuitive laser field blocking the excited atoms on the left side of the device is essential for a perfect diode effect. The reason for this, the diodic behavior, and the robustness may be understood with an adiabatic approximation. The conditions to break down the approximation, which imply also the diode failure, are analyzed.
We implement and demonstrate the effectiveness of a cooling scheme using a moving, all-optical, one-way barrier to cool a sample of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms, achieving nearly a factor of 2 reduction in temperature. The one-way barrier, composed of two focused, Gaussian laser beams, allows atoms incident on one side to transmit, while reflecting atoms incident on the other. The one-way barrier is adiabatically swept through a sample of atoms contained in a far-off-resonant, single-beam, optical dipole trap that forms a nearly harmonic trapping potential. As the barrier moves longitudinally through the potential, atoms become trapped to one side of the barrier with reduced kinetic energy. The adiabatic translation of the barrier leaves the atoms at the bottom of the trapping potential, only minimally increasing their kinetic energy.
A review is presented of some of the principal techniques of laser cooling and trapping that have been developed during the past 20 years. Its approach is primarily experimental, but its quantitative descriptions are consistent in notation with most of the theoretical literature. It begins with a simplified introduction to optical forces on atoms, including both cooling and trapping. Then its three main sections discuss its three selected features, (1) quantization of atomic motion, (2) effects of the multilevel structure of atoms, and (3) the effects of polychromatic light. Each of these features is an expansion in a different direction from the simplest model of a classical, two-level atom moving in a monochromatic laser field.
We investigate theoretically a novel optical technique to cool atomic or molecular species without a closed transition: a particle in front of a mirror illuminated by an off-resonant light beam. The interaction between the particle, the pump and the time-delayed reflected pump results in a net loss of energy from the particle to the field and therefore cooling. Cooling rates depending on particle position and coupling parameters are obtained by an analytical perturbative approach. Finally, we present a semiclassical computational model incorporating momentum diffusion, which will eventually allow us to predict steady-state temperatures.