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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

Trapping and manipulating atoms with guided evanescent fields

John Robert Burke, Sai-Tak Chu, Garnett W. Bryant, Carl J. Williams, Paul S. Julienne, Eite Tiesinga

Published Nov 13, 2002• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. Electromagnetic fields have been used extensively to manipulate and control atoms. Intersecting light beams are used to create standing waves that act as an optical lattice potential. Evanescent fields at a surface can be used as a mirror to reflect atoms scattering on the surface. Atoms can propagate inside a hollow core fiber provided that an evanescent surface field keeps the atoms away from the inner wall. These fields are used to move and locate atoms so that they can interact, interfere, and entangle. We have been examining the two color scheme with realistic integrated optical waveguide structures. In this presentation, we show that two-dimensional and three-dimensional trapping configurations can be achieved for real waveguide structures. We discuss the design features that must be addressed to implement optical structures for use in atom optics.

DOI
10.1109/qels.2001.961935

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Summary form only given. Electromagnetic fields have been used extensively to manipulate and control atoms. Intersecting light beams are used to create standing waves that act as an optical lattice potential. Evanescent fields at a surface can be used as a mirror to reflect atoms scattering on the surface. Atoms can propagate inside a hollow core fiber provided that an evanescent surface field keeps the atoms away from the inner wall. These fields are used to move and locate atoms so that they can interact, interfere, and entangle. We have been examining the two color scheme with realistic integrated optical waveguide structures. In this presentation, we show that two-dimensional and three-dimensional trapping configurations can be achieved for real waveguide structures. We discuss the design features that must be addressed to implement optical structures for use in atom optics.
We theoretically investigate three approaches to trapping atoms above linear integrated optical waveguides. A two- color scheme balances the decaying evanescent elds of red- and blue-detuned light to produce a potential minimum above the guide. A one-color surface trap proposal uses blue-detuned light and the attractive surface interaction to provide a potential minimum. A third proposal uses blue-detuned light in two guides positioned above and below one another. The atoms are con ned to the \dark" spot in the vacuum gap between the guides. We nd that all three approaches can be used in principle to trap atoms in two- or three-dimensions with a few 10's of mW of laser power. Of these three methods, we show that the dark spot guide is the most robust to power fluctuations and provides the most viable design approach to constructing integrated optical circuits that could transport and manipulate atoms in a controlled manner.
Integrated optical structures offer the intriguing potential of compact, reproducible waveguide arrays, rings, Y junctions, etc., that could be used to design evanescent field traps to transport, store, and interact atoms in networks as complicated as any integrated optical waveguide circuit. We theoretically investigate three approaches to trapping atoms above linear integrated optical waveguides. A two-color scheme balances the decaying evanescent fields of red- and blue-detuned light to produce a potential minimum above the guide. A one-color surface trap proposal uses blue-detuned light and the attractive surface interaction to provide a potential minimum. A third proposal uses blue-detuned light in two guides positioned above and below one another. The atoms are confined to the ``dark'' spot in the vacuum gap between the guides. We find that all three approaches can be used to trap atoms in two or three dimensions with approximately 100 mW of laser power. We show that the dark spot guide is robust to light scatter and provides the most viable approach for constructing integrated optical circuits that could be used to transport and manipulate atoms in a controlled manner.
We analyze evanescent fields of laser written waveguides and show that they can be used to trap atoms close to the surface of an integrated optical atom chip. In contrast to subwavelength nanofibres it is generally not possible to create a stable trapping potential using only the fundamental modes. This is why we create a stable trapping potential by using two different laser colors, such that the waveguide supports two modes for the blue detuned laser, while for the red detuned light the waveguide has only a single mode. In particular, we study such a two-color trap for Cesium atoms, and calculate both the potential and losses for the set of parameters that are within experimental reach. We also optimize system parameters in order to minimize trap losses due to photon scattering and tunneling to the surface.
Recent theoretical and experimental demonstrations have shown that blue-detuned laser light, propagating in the annular core-cladding region of a hollow-glass fiber, produces a repulsive, evanescent light-wave potential in the hollow, that can be used to guide near-resonant atoms down the fiber. In this work, I show that slight modifications to the hollow-fiber geometry can be used to turn this atom guide into an atom-bottle trap. The trap can be open and shut by varying the aperture angle at which light couples into the fiber, allowing the atoms to be easily loaded. This trap has an advantage over other optical atom traps in that the atoms move coherently in a field-free region with only brief specular reflections at the step-like potential walls.
Recent theoretical and experimental demonstrations have shown that blue-detuned laser light, propagating in the annular core-cladding region of a hollow-glass fiber, produces a repulsive, evanescent light-wave potential in the hollow that can be used to guide near-resonant atoms down the fiber.1–4 In this work I show that slight modifications to the hollow-fiber geometry can be used to turn this atom guide into an atom-bottle trap.5-6 The trap can be opened and shut by varying the aperture angle at which light couples into the fiber, allowing the atoms to be easily loaded. This trap has an advantage over other optical atom traps in that the atoms move coherently in a field-free region with only brief specular reflections at the step-like potential walls.
We use evanescent laser light to guide atoms through hollow-core optical fibers. The light, detuned to the blue side of rubidium's D2{D}_{2}D2​ resonance lines, is launched into the glass region of a hollow capillary fiber and guided through the fiber by total internal reflection from the glass walls. Atoms interacting with the evanescent component of the field are repelled from the wall and guided through the fiber hollow. A second laser tuned to the red side of resonance is used to initially inject the atoms into the evanescent guide. An optical intensity threshold for guiding is observed as the evanescent-field-induced dipole forces exceed the van der Waals forces.