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arXiv:2001.04892 · Physical Review Research

Optomechanical transport of cold atoms induced by structured light

Giuseppe Baio, Gordon R. M. Robb, Alison M. Yao, Gian-Luca Oppo

Published May 4, 2020• 11 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The optomechanical dynamics of a cloud of cold atoms in an optical resonator pumped by an input beam possessing orbital angular momentum is investigated. By means of the pump vortex structure, self-organized patterns with circular lattice geometries induce rotation motion of bunched atoms in the transverse plane. This mechanism involves angular momentum transfer from the pump to the self-trapped atoms and can be used to induce one dimensional atomic transport.

DOI
10.1103/physrevresearch.2.023126

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The optomechanical dynamics of a cloud of cold atoms in an optical resonator pumped by an input beam possessing orbital angular momentum is investigated. By means of the pump vortex structure, self-organized patterns with circular lattice geometries induce rotation motion of bunched atoms in the transverse plane. This mechanism involves angular momentum transfer from the pump to the self-trapped atoms and can be used to induce one dimensional atomic transport.
Optomechanical pattern forming instabilities in a cloud of cold atoms lead to self-organized spatial structures of light and atoms. Here, we consider the optomechanical self-structuring of a cold atomic cloud in the presence of a phase structured input field, carrying orbital angular momentum. For a planar ring cavity setup, a model of coupled cavity field and atomic density equations describes a wide range of drifting modulation instabilities in the transverse plane. This leads to the formation of rotating self-organized rings of light-atom lattices. Using linear stability analysis and numerical simulations of the coupled atomic and optical dynamics, we demonstrate the presence of macroscopic atomic transport corresponding to the pattern rotation, induced by the structured pump phase profile.
Clouds of cold neutral atoms driven by a coherent light beam in a ring cavity exhibit self-structured states transversely with respect to the beam axis due to optomechanical forces and the backaction of the atomic structures on the beam. Below the instability threshold for extended hexagonal structures, localized solitonlike excitations can be stable. These constitute peaks or holes of atom density, depending on the linear susceptibility of the cloud. Complex rotating and spiraling motion of coupled atom-light solitons, and, hence, atomic transport, can be achieved via phase gradients in the input field profile. We also discuss the stability of rotating soliton chains in view of soliton-soliton interactions. The investigations are performed in a cavity scheme but expected to apply to other longitudinally pumped schemes with diffractive coupling.
The rapidly developing field of optomechanics aims at the combined control of optical and mechanical (solid-state or atomic) modes. In particular, laser cooled atoms have been used to exploit optomechanical coupling for self-organization in a variety of schemes where the accessible length scales are constrained by a combination of pump modes and those associated to a second imposed axis, typically a cavity axis. Here, we consider a system with many spatial degrees of freedom around a single distinguished axis, in which two symmetries - rotations and translations in the plane orthogonal to the pump axis - are spontaneously broken. We observe the simultaneous spatial structuring of the density of a cold atomic cloud and an optical pump beam. The resulting patterns have hexagonal symmetry. The experiment demonstrates the manipulation of matter by opto-mechanical self-assembly with adjustable length scales and can be potentially extended to quantum degenerate gases.
Summary form only given. Spontaneous optical pattern formation occurs in a variety of nonlinear systems [1], including hot atomic vapors [2]. On the other hand, the spatial self-organization of atomic ensembles due to opto-mechanical coupling has received a lot of interest in recent years [3].We report on the observation of transverse self-organization of a cold atomic cloud (issued from a magnetooptical trap) under the action of a single pump laser beam. Two symmetries (translation and rotation) in the plane orthogonal to the beam propagation direction are spontaneously broken. We use a simple optical feedback scheme [4], where the transmitted pump beam is retro-reflected to the atoms by a high-reflectivity mirror located at a distance d behind the cloud. This feedback loop transforms phase fluctuations of the transmitted wave into intensity fluctuations, which then react on the atomic medium. If the feedback is positive, a transverse instability can develop leading to the spontaneous apparition of patterns in the transmitted pump intensity profile, as shown in the figure below (left).Using a weak probe beam sent a few tens of μs after the e,tinction of the pump, we demonstrate that the instability also results in a transverse spatial ordering of the atomic medium as shown in the right image. The cold atoms thus e,perience strong spatial bunching due to the dipole force associated to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution. We identified two different instability regimes. For short pump durations (- 1 μs), high pump intensity and cloud optical density, the instability relies on the Kerr effect (electronic nonlinearity). For longer pump durations (- 100 μs), the instability is driven by the opto-mechanical effect, resulting in lower intensity and optical density thresholds than for the electronic nonlinearity. These observations are well reproduced by a theoretical model including the coupled dynamics of the light field and the atomic e,ternal degrees of freedom.
Self-organized phases in cold atoms as a result of light-mediated interactions can be induced by coupling to internal or external degrees of the atoms. There has been growing interest in the interaction of internal spin degrees of freedom with the optomechanical dynamics of the external center-of-mass motion. We present a model for the coupling between magnetic and optomechanical structuring in a $J=1/2\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{J}^{\ensuremath{'}}=3/2$ system in a single-mirror feedback scheme, which is representative of a larger class of diffractively coupled systems such as longitudinally pumped cavities and counterpropagating-beam schemes. For negative detunings, a linear stability analysis demonstrates that optical pumping and optomechanical driving cooperate to create magnetic ordering. However, for long-period transmission gratings the magnetic driving will strongly dominate the optomechanical driving, unless one operates very close to the existence range of the magnetic instability. At small lattice periods, in particular at wavelength-scale periods, the optomechanical driving will dominate.
Abstract Cold atom setups are now commonly employed in simulations of condensed matter phenomena. We present an approach to induce strong magnetic interactions between atoms on a self-organized lattice using diffraction of light. Diffractive propagation of structured light fields leads to an exchange between phase and amplitude modulated planes which can be used to couple atomic degrees of freedom via optical pumping nonlinearities. In the experiment a cold cloud of Rb atoms placed near a retro-reflecting mirror is driven by a detuned pump laser. We demonstrate spontaneous magnetic ordering in the Zeeman sublevels of the atomic ground state: anti-ferromagnetic structures on a square lattice and ferrimagnetic structures on a hexagonal lattice in zero and a weak longitudinal magnetic field, respectively. The ordered state is destroyed by a transverse magnetic field via coherent dynamics. A connection to the transverse (quantum) Ising model is drawn.