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arXiv:1808.02487 · Physical Review A

Coherent optical nanotweezers for ultracold atoms

Przemysław Bienias, Sarthak Subhankar, Yang Wang, T-C. Tsui, Fred Jendrzejewski, T. G. Tiecke, Gediminas Juzeliūnas, Liang Jiang, S. L. Rolston, J. V. Porto, Alexey Vyacheslavovich Gorshkov

Published Jul 7, 2020• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

There has been a recent surge of interest and progress in creating subwavelength free-space optical potentials for ultracold atoms. A key open question is whether geometric potentials, which are repulsive and ubiquitous in the creation of subwavelength free-space potentials, forbid the creation of narrow traps with long lifetimes. Here, we show that it is possible to create such traps. We propose two schemes for realizing subwavelength traps and demonstrate their superiority over existing proposals. We analyze the lifetime of atoms in such traps and show that long-lived bound states are possible. This work allows for subwavelength control and manipulation of ultracold matter, with applications in quantum chemistry and quantum simulation.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.102.013306

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There has been a recent surge of interest and progress in creating subwavelength free-space optical potentials for ultracold atoms. A key open question is whether geometric potentials, which are repulsive and ubiquitous in the creation of subwavelength free-space potentials, forbid the creation of narrow traps with long lifetimes. Here, we show that it is possible to create such traps. We propose two schemes for realizing subwavelength traps and demonstrate their superiority over existing proposals. We analyze the lifetime of atoms in such traps and show that long-lived bound states are possible. This work allows for subwavelength control and manipulation of ultracold matter, with applications in quantum chemistry and quantum simulation.
Abstract Optical tweezers have become essential tools to manipulate atoms or molecules at a single particle level. However, using standard diffraction-limited optical systems, the transverse size of the trap is lower bounded by the optical wavelength, limiting the application range of optical tweezers. Here we report trapping of single ultracold atom in an optical trap that can be continuously tuned from a standard Airy focus to a subwavelength hotspot smaller than the usual Abbe’s diffraction limit. The hotspot was generated using the effect of superoscillations, by the precise interference of multiple free-space coherent waves. We argue that superoscillatory trapping and continuous potential tuning offer not only a way to generate compact and tenable ensembles of trapped atoms for quantum simulators but will also be useful in single molecule quantum chemistry and the study of cooperative atom-photon interactions within subwavelength arrays of quantum emitters.
We propose a method for creating far-field optical barrier potentials for ultracold atoms with widths that are narrower than the diffraction limit and can approach tens of nanometers. The reduced widths stem from the nonlinear atomic response to control fields that create spatially varying dark resonances. The subwavelength barrier is the result of the geometric scalar potential experienced by an atom prepared in such a spatially varying dark state. The performance of this technique, as well as its applications to the study of many-body physics and to the implementation of quantum-information protocols with ultracold atoms, are discussed, with a focus on the implementation of tunnel junctions.
We propose to use subwavelength confinement of light associated with the near field of plasmonic systems to create nanoscale optical lattices for ultracold atoms. Our approach combines the unique coherence properties of isolated atoms with the subwavelength manipulation and strong light-matter interaction associated with nanoplasmonic systems. It allows one to considerably increase the energy scales in the realization of Hubbard models and to engineer effective long-range interactions in coherent and dissipative many-body dynamics. Realistic imperfections and potential applications are discussed.
Recent advances in experiments using individually trapped atoms have enabled precise control over circular Rydberg electrons with exceptionally long lifetimes. We show that these giant and stable electron orbits can form toroidal lattice potentials for ultracold atoms with a period set by the electron's de Broglie wavelength. Unlike conventional static optical lattices, this electron lattice is formed via the electron-atom interaction, which mixes Rydberg circular states with opposite azimuthal phase winding into a standing electronic matter wave. The lattice phase is thereby intrinsically coupled to the atom position. For a pair of atoms, this results in ballistic tunneling motion in the two-atom spatial correlations along the ring, while the single particle dynamics is essentially free rotation. We simulate the dynamics for an experimentally realistic setting that exploits optical tweezers for individual atom control. Our results open a route toward incorporating long range atom-atom interactions mediated by a single electron and, ultimately, realizing small Bose and Fermi gases confined in these microscopic electronic atom traps.
Optical potentials have been a versatile tool for the study of atomic motions and many-body interactions in cold atoms. Recently, optical subwavelength single barriers were proposed to enhance the atomic interaction energy scale, which is based on nonadiabatic corrections to Born-Oppenheimer potentials. Here we present a study for creating an alternative landscape of nonadiabatic potentials---multiple barriers with subwavelength spacing at tens of nanometers. To realize these potentials, spatially rapid-varying dark states of atomic $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$ configurations are formed by controlling the spatial intensities of the driving lasers. As an application, we show that bound states of very long lifetimes on the order of seconds can be realized. Imperfections and experimental realizations of the multiple barriers are also discussed.
Ultracold single molecules have wide-ranging potential applications, such as ultracold chemistry, precision measurements, quantum simulation, and quantum computation. However, given the difficulty of achieving full control of a complex atom-molecule system, the coherent formation of single molecules remains a challenge. Here, we report an alternative route to coherently bind two atoms into a weakly bound molecule at megahertz levels by coupling atomic spins to their two-body relative motion in a strongly focused laser with inherent polarization gradients. The coherent nature is demonstrated by long-lived atom-molecule Rabi oscillations. We further manipulate the motional levels of the molecules and measure the binding energy precisely. This work opens the door to full control of all degrees of freedom in atom-molecule systems.