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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Six-beam optical lattice with intrinsically stable time phases

Arno Rauschenbeutel, Harald Schadwinkel, V. Gomer, Dieter Meschede

Published Nov 27, 2002• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given.To manipulate atomic motion by laser radiation in two or three dimensions, atoms are usually exposed to several laser beams whose interference pattern results from the light-atom interaction and hence the atom dynamics. In general, the resulting light field crucially depends on the relative phases of the interfering light beams. One method to provide a laser field with a stable intensity and polarization configuration is to reduce the number of beams.

DOI
10.1109/iqec.1998.680395

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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics•Nov 27, 2002•0 citations
Summary form only given.To manipulate atomic motion by laser radiation in two or three dimensions, atoms are usually exposed to several laser beams whose interference pattern results from the light-atom interaction and hence the atom dynamics. In general, the resulting light field crucially depends on the relative phases of the interfering light beams. One method to provide a laser field with a stable intensity and polarization configuration is to reduce the number of beams.
Optical lattices formed by interfering laser beams are widely used to trap and manipulate atoms for quantum simulation, metrology, and computation. To stabilize optical lattices in experiments, it is usually challenging to implement delicate phase-locking systems with complicated optics and electronics to reduce the relative phase fluctuation of multiple laser beams. Here, we report a phase-locking-free scheme to implement an optical lattice by passing a single laser beam through a prism with n-fold symmetric facets and large apex angles. The scheme ensures a stable optical lattice since the interference occurs among different deflected parts of a single laser beam. Various lattice configurations, including a triangular lattice and a quasi-crystalline lattice with tenfold symmetry, are demonstrated. In both cases, stability measurements show a change of lattice constant and a drift of lattice position of less than 1.14% and 1.61% relative to the lattice constant.
The long range goal of this project was the creation of nanostructures using light fields to manipulate atoms. By passing an atomic beam through one or more standing wave light fields, it is possible to create modulations in the atomic density having periods which are a fraction of the period of the standing wave light fields. Patterns having periods as small as lambda/10 were observed using optical masks and clear evidence for matter-wave effects were established. Several theoretical methods for achieving sub-lambda matter wave patterns were developed, Moreover it was shown that it is possible to create optical lattices having reduced periodicity using Raman transitions in a novel atom-field geometry Experiments were carried out in both magneto-optical traps and atomic beams. In both experimental set-ups, pulsed standing wave optical fields were used to excite the atoms. At some later time the atoms were probed by a traveling wave field, revealing the spatial patterns that had evolved as a result of the atom-field interaction.
The electric field intensity of a standing-wave laser field is periodic in space. Due to the ac Stark effect, this gives rise to a spatially periodic potential acting on an atom, as explained in Chapter 4 (see, e.g., Eq. (4.31)). This is the physical principle behind the generation of optical lattices. By superimposing a number of different laser beams it is possible to generate potentials which are periodic in one, two or three dimensions. The suggestion that standing light waves may be used to confine the motion of atoms dates back to 1968 and is due to Letokhov. The first experimental realization of an optical lattice was achieved in 1987 for a classical gas of cesium atoms. The study of atoms in such potentials has many different facets. At the simplest level, it is possible to study the energy band structure of atoms moving in these potentials and to explore experimentally a number of effects that are difficult to observe for electrons in the periodic lattice of a solid. Interactions between atoms introduce qualitatively new effects. Within mean-field theory, which applies when the number of atoms in the vicinity of a single minimum of the potential is sufficiently large, one finds that interatomic interactions give rise to novel features in the band structure. These include multivaluedness of the energy for a given band and states possessing a periodicity different from that of the optical lattice.
New levels of control over the atomic motion have been attained through the development of the atom laser. The unique properties of these coherent atomic sources open up a wide range of new possibilities in the fields of atom optics and precision measurement. In this article we have discussed the high contrast interference pattern obtained from an atom laser with two output modes of different energies. It should be possible to create a highly complex interference pattern in the output beam of an atom laser by applying a correspondingly tailored radio wave field for output coupling. A novel atom optical manipulation method allowed us to reflect, recapture and focus an atom laser beam. Due to its simplicity and precision the technique is ideally suited for creating an interferometer for the atom laser beam. It seems feasible to split the atom laser beam into two components and recombine it after delaying one of the two components. The resulting interference pattern would reveal the coherence properties of the atom laser beam.
Summary form only given.Using neutral atoms for lithography is a new method of generating nanostructures on a substrate. This method is based on light masks formed by interfering laser beams perpendicular to the atomic beam. One- and two-dimensional periodic structures have been fabricated by various groups using light masks with intensity gradients and uniform polarization. The resulting periods are half the laser wavelength or greater. Atoms with a magnetic substructure in the electronic ground state are strongly sensitive to light polarization and static magnetic fields. Our work presents a detailed investigation of possible two-dimensional light field configurations including polarization gradients and static magnetic fields. The resulting nanostructures obtained in an experimentally realistic situation are simulated.