Coherent control of atoms in an optical lattice

Benjamin P. Holder

Latif Ur Rahman, U. Zakir, Bakht Amin Bacha +3 more

This manuscript explores the coherent control of optical lattices and optical unit cells. Optical lattices are formed by the counter-propagation of Laguerre Gaussian beams within an atomic medium. Variations in absorption and the refractive index along the x and y axes provide insight into the confined modes of the optical lattice and its unit cells, from which we can extract information about mode confinement. Density plots of the absorption spectrum and refractive index reveal the presence of unit cells in both the valley and peak regions of the counter-propagating Laguerre Gaussian standing wave fields. In this manuscript, we control the Wigner and cubic-type unit cells of optical lattices with lattice parameters [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text].

Stephan Arlinghaus, Martin Holthaus

Motivated by recent experimental progress achieved with ultracold atoms in kilohertz-driven optical lattices, we provide a theoretical discussion of mechanisms governing the response of a particle in a cosine lattice potential to strong forcing pulses with smooth envelope. Such pulses effectuate adiabatic motion of a wave packet's momentum distribution on quasienergy surfaces created by spatiotemporal Bloch waves. Deviations from adiabaticity can then be deliberately exploited for exerting coherent control and for reaching target states which may not be accessible by other means. As one particular example, we consider an analog of the $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulses known from optical resonance. We also suggest adapting further techniques previously developed for controlling atomic and molecular dynamics by laser pulses to the coherent control of matter waves in shaken optical lattices.

Georg A. Raithel, Natalya V. Morrow

Brian Mischuck, Ivan Deutsch

Joan Bagudà, Sònia Fernández-Vidal, Albert Benseny +5 more

We extend the recently developed three-level atom optics (TLAO) techniques, e.g., the spatial analogue of Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage, to (i) the coherent control of defects, e.g., empty sites, in optical lattices and microtraps; and (ii) to the robust and efficient transport of atoms between optical waveguides.