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arXiv:1811.04508 · Physical Review Applied

Dual-Color Magic-Wavelength Trap for Suppression of Light Shifts in Atoms

A.P. Hilton, Christopher Perrella, Andre Nicholas Luiten, P.S. Light

Published Feb 26, 2019• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

``Magic wavelength'' traps are used in state-of-the-art optical atomic lattice clocks, to hold atoms without perturbing their delicate internal states. Such traps have only been possible for specific atomic species, or have required trapping light that is difficult to produce. This work reveals that, by augmenting a standard optical trap with a weak additional light field of a different color, it is possible to achieve the ``magic'' configuration through the interaction of the two light sources. This opens the field of optical control and precision measurement to a much wider range of atoms, and thus could extend cold-atom sources to a much wider range of applications.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.11.024065

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Magic wavelength'' traps are used in state-of-the-art optical atomic lattice clocks, to hold atoms without perturbing their delicate internal states. Such traps have only been possible for specific atomic species, or have required trapping light that is difficult to produce. This work reveals that, by augmenting a standard optical trap with a weak additional light field of a different color, it is possible to achieve the magic'' configuration through the interaction of the two light sources. This opens the field of optical control and precision measurement to a much wider range of atoms, and thus could extend cold-atom sources to a much wider range of applications.
State-insensitive trapping plays a significant role in many cold atom experiments. In this technique, trapping at a specific "magic" wavelength leads to identical shifts of the ground and excited states of a particular transition. Hence, the internal state of the trapped atoms remains essentially unaffected by the trapping light. This leads to increased coherence times and loading efficiency, and allows for the use of free-space manipulation techniques. However, the applicability of state-insensitive trapping is limited in terms of light sources available, with restrictions coming from either the required frequency or power. In this thesis, state-insensitive trapping of caesium atoms is considered. It can be achieved at the wavelength of 935.6 nm. However, the present work shows that this wavelength is impractical for experimental realizations of atom trapping in free space due to lack of laser sources with sufficiently high power. We therefore propose bichromatic trapping, as produced by two independent laser fields with different frequencies, to overcome the limitations related to monochromatic trapping. We show that bichromatic trapping extends the range of possible magic wavelengths compared to the specific magic wavelength associated with monochromatic trapping. Specifically, we present results for the magic wavelength combinations for caesium atoms with particular attention to the frequency range of currently available laser sources. Simultaneous state-independent trapping of atomic mixtures of caesium with rubidium and lithium atoms was also investigated, and appropriate magic wavelength combinations were identified. Additionally, species-selective state-independent trapping of atomic mixtures of caesium and lithium was explored and common wavelength pairs for tune-out and magic wavelengths of these atoms were determined.
In a standing wave of light, a difference in spatial distributions of multipolar atom-field interactions may introduce atomic-motion dependent clock uncertainties in optical lattice clocks. We show that the magic wavelength can be defined so as to eliminate the spatial mismatch in electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole interactions for specific combinations of standing waves by allowing a spatially constant light shift arising from the latter two interactions. Experimental prospects of such lattices used with a blue magic wavelength are discussed.
Precision measurements and quantum-information processing with cold atoms may benefit from trapping atoms with specially engineered, ``magic'' optical fields. At the magic trapping conditions, the relevant atomic properties remain immune to strong perturbations by the trapping fields. Here we develop a theoretical analysis of magic trapping for especially valuable Zeeman-insensitive clock transitions in alkali-metal atoms. The involved mechanism relies on applying a magic bias BBB field along a circularly polarized trapping laser field. We map out these BBB fields as a function of trapping laser wavelength for all commonly used alkalis. We also highlight a common error in evaluating Stark shifts of hyperfine manifolds.
Experiments involving optical traps often require careful control of the ac Stark shifts induced by strong confining light fields. By carefully balancing light shifts between two atomic states of interest, optical traps at the magic wavelength have been especially effective at suppressing deleterious effects stemming from such shifts. Highlighting the power of this technique, optical clocks today exploit Lamb-Dicke confinement in magic-wavelength optical traps, in some cases realizing shift cancelation at the ten parts per billion level. Theory and empirical measurements can be used at varying levels of precision to determine the magic wavelength where shift cancelation occurs. However, lasers exhibit background spectra from amplified spontaneous emission or other lasing modes that can easily contaminate measurement of the magic wavelength and its reproducibility in other experiments or conditions. Indeed, residual light shifts from laser background have plagued optical lattice clock measurements for years. In this work, we develop a simple theoretical model allowing prediction of light shifts from measured background spectra. We demonstrate good agreement between this model and measurements of the background light shift from an amplified diode laser in a Yb optical lattice clock. Additionally, we model and experimentally characterize the filtering effect of a volume Bragg grating bandpass filter, demonstrating that application of the filter can reduce background light shifts from amplified spontaneous emission well below the ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}$ fractional clock frequency level. This demonstration is corroborated by direct clock comparisons between a filtered amplified diode laser and a filtered titanium:sapphire laser.
A microwave atomic clock scheme based on Rb and Cs atoms trapped in optical lattice with magic wavelength for clock transition is proposed. The ac Stark shift of clock transition due to trapping laser can be canceled at some specific laser wavelengths. Comparing with in fountain clock, the cavity related shifts, the collision shift, and the Doppler effect are eliminated or suppressed dramatically in atomic clock when the magic optical lattice is exploited. By carefully analyzing various sources of clock uncertainty, we conclude that a microwave atomic clock with an accuracy of better than 2×10−172\times10^{-17}2×10−17 is feasible, which is of the same accuracy as the expected best optical atomic clock.
Optical lattice clocks combine the accuracy and stability required for next-generation frequency standards. At the heart of these clocks are carefully engineered optical lattices tuned to a wavelength where the differential AC Stark shift between ground and excited states vanishes—the so called ‘magic’ wavelength. To date, only alkaline-earth-like atoms utilizing clock transitions with total electronic angular momentum J=0 have successfully realized these magic wavelength optical lattices at the level necessary for state-of-the-art clock operation. In this article, we discuss two additional types of clock transitions utilizing states with J≠0, leveraging hyperfine structure to satisfy the necessary requirements for controlling lattice-induced light shifts. We propose realizing (i) clock transitions between same-parity clock states with total angular momentum F=0 and (ii) M1/E2 clock transitions between a state with F=0 and a second state with J=1/2, mF=0. We present atomic species which fulfill these requirements before giving a detailed discussion of both manganese and copper, demonstrating how these transitions provide the necessary suppression of fine structure-induced vector and tensor lattice light shifts for clock operations. Such realization of alternative optical lattice clocks promises to provide a rich variety of new atomic species for neutral atom clock operation, with applications from many-body physics to searches for new physics.