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Journal of Physics Conference Series

Interferometers from single-atom mirrors

Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu

Published Dec 17, 2012• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Interferometers are ubiquitous devices in optics, consisting of arrangements of totally reflective and semitransparent mirrors, fiber optics, detectors, etc . The smallest possible mirror consists of a single atom, and with recent advances in nanotechnology it is possible to fabricate them and couple them to transmission lines. This can be realized for example with superconducting qubits and superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators or with dipole emitters coupled to surface-plasmon nanowires. Based on a recent proposal [G S Paraoanu, Phys. Rev. A 82 , 023802 (2010)], here we give a brief overview of the two-atom Mach-Zender interferometer. Here we show that both the phase and the amplitude of the output field can be used to extract information about the phase difference between the two arms of the interferometer. Also, we point out that this device can be used as well in the reflection mode.

DOI
10.1088/1742-6596/400/4/042050

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Interferometers are ubiquitous devices in optics, consisting of arrangements of totally reflective and semitransparent mirrors, fiber optics, detectors, etc . The smallest possible mirror consists of a single atom, and with recent advances in nanotechnology it is possible to fabricate them and couple them to transmission lines. This can be realized for example with superconducting qubits and superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators or with dipole emitters coupled to surface-plasmon nanowires. Based on a recent proposal [G S Paraoanu, Phys. Rev. A 82 , 023802 (2010)], here we give a brief overview of the two-atom Mach-Zender interferometer. Here we show that both the phase and the amplitude of the output field can be used to extract information about the phase difference between the two arms of the interferometer. Also, we point out that this device can be used as well in the reflection mode.
Recent progress in atom optics has culminated in several demonstrations of atom interferometers. These rely on the passage of atoms through mechanical or light gratings and may be roughly characterized as Mach–Zehnder interferometers. In this communication, we propose a scheme to realize a Fabry–Perot interferometer for atoms. The mirrors are realized by the field gradient resulting from the spatial mode structure in optical or microwave cavities. When ultra- cold atoms impinge on such cavities, they experience quantum mechanical reflection and transmission that result in the appearance of longitudinal modes for the atomic wave function. We present a model of such a Fabry–Perot interferometer for two-level atoms. We discuss the intra-cavity matter–wave mode structure as well as the transmittivity and reflectivity characteristics of the interferometer. The potential generation of macroscopic quantum waves using such a device, as well as its potential as a sensitive photon detector, will be addressed.
Atom and, more recently, molecule interferometers are used in fundamental research and industrial applications. Most atom interferometers rely on gratings made from laser beams, which can provide high precision, but cannot reach very short wavelengths and require complex laser systems to function. Contrary to this, simple monolithic interferometers cut from single crystals offer (sub) nanometer wavelengths with an extreme level of stability and robustness. Such devices were conceived and demonstrated several decades ago for neutrons and electrons. Here, we propose a monolithic design for a thermal-beam molecule interferometer based on (quantum) reflection. We show, as an example, how a reflective, monolithic interferometer (Mach-Zehnder type) can be realized for a helium beam using $\mathrm{Si}(111)\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{H}(1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1)$ surfaces, which have previously been demonstrated to act as very robust and stable diffractive mirrors for neutral helium atoms.
We present a brief overview of the transport of quantum light across a one-dimensional waveguide which is integrated with a periodic string of quantum-scale dipoles. We demonstrate a scheme to implement transparency by suitably tuning the atomic frequencies without applying a coupling field and bring out the pronounced non-reciprocity of this optical device. The fiber-mediated interaction between integrated dipoles allows one to achieve both dispersive and dissipative couplings, level repulsion and attraction, and enhanced sensing capabilities. All these ideas can be translated to a wide variety of experimental setups of topical interest such as resonators on a transmission line, cold atoms near a fiber and quantum dots coupled to plasmonic excitations in a nanowire or photonic crystal waveguides.
A dielectric microsphere may be considered as an artificial photonic atom. The electromagnetic modes in the microsphere are completely assigned with indexes similar to those used to characterize simple atomic systems. Microsphere modes, as well as microring or microdisk, trap light in circular orbits near the sphere surface and strongly modify the phase of the interacting light, resulting in very steep dispersions. Pulse propagation experiments were performed in a system consisting of a fiber taper coupled with a silica glass microsphere, and it was shown that the light velocity in the system can be largely changed through the control of the coupling strength. Slow light was also demonstrated in a system in which two ultrahigh-Q silica microspheres of different diameters were coupled in tandem to a fiber taper demonstrating classical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency in atomic system. Here, we employed interferometric techniques based on the Mach-Zehnder interferometer for examining extremely steep dispersions induced by whispering gallery modes with a quality factor on the order of Q 1⁄4 10. Such a narrow resonance in the dielectric microsphere is comparable to that in cooled atomic systems. We successfully observed both normal and anomalous dispersions at the resonant frequency, depending on the coupling strength between the sphere and the fiber. Figure 1 shows our experimental system based on an interferometric setup. We used the second harmonics of a single mode ring cavity Nd3þ yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd3þ:YAG) laser with a line width of 1 kHz at 532 nm. The laser frequency was tuned using thermal control of the ring cavity length, over a mode-hop-free range of greater than 10GHz. The reference arm was empty, while the sample arm contained the microsphere-fiber system. Silica microspheres were fabricated from standard telecommunication optical fiber. The end of the etched fiber was fused using a CO2 laser and the microsphere formed due to the surface tension. The experiments were performed with a microsphere 60 mm in diameter. The fiber taper was also fabricated from the same telecommunication fiber. The typical fiber waist diameter at the coupling region was 0.5 mm. A large number of spectrally overlapping resonance modes exist within a microsphere. The fiber taper method is essential for coupling the incident light to a specific whispering gallery mode selectively and efficiently. The microsphere was attached to a translation stage controlled by a piezo actuator. The relative position between the sphere and the fiber were carefully adjusted so that we could observe spectrally isolated whispering gallery modes with proper coupling strength. The optical path length and dispersion were equalized in each arm as completely as possible. The fringe pattern was captured using a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for each frequency increment. The observed interference patterns appeared as concentric circles due to the interference between the plain reference wave and the spherical wave from the sample arm. A least square fit for each fringe pattern was performed to extract the phase information in the transmitted light. Figures 2(a) and 2(b) show examples of transmission spectra through the microsphere fiber taper coupled system. These spectra were taken in two different whispering gallery modes at different laser frequencies in the mode-hop-free laser tuning range. The transmission dips appear when the incident laser frequencies are resonant at specific whispering gallery modes in the microsphere. The two whispering gallery modes shown in Figs. 2(a) and 2(b) are denoted as WG1 and WG2, respectively. The transmission minimum was Tmin 1⁄4 0:12, and the resonance width was 1⁄4 BS
The key elements for atom interferometers are atomic beam splitters and recombiners. An atomic beam splitter separates a single atomic wave function into a superposition state corresponding to two center of mass wavepackets that propagate in different spatial directions and a recombiner reunites the atomic beams. We report here on the investigation of 1) an atomic beam splitter with large separation angle based on the optical Stern Gerlach effect, 2) an atomic mirror based on the reflection of atoms by different types of evanescent waves (a simple evanescent wave and a surface plasmon wave), 3) an atomic beam splitter realized by the partial spatial reflection of an atom by an evanescent wave and 4) diffraction of atoms by a standing evanescent wave.