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Physical Review Letters

Channeling atoms in a laser standing wave

Ch Salomon, Jean Dalibard, Alain Aspect, H. Metcalf, Claude N. Cohen-Tannoudji

Published Oct 12, 1987• 178 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the experimental observation of laser confinement of neutral atoms in optical-wavelength--size regions. A well collimated atomic beam was crossed at right angles by a one-dimensional standing wave and atoms were observed to be channeled into paths between the peaks of the standing wave.
DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.59.1659

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This chapter provides a brief review of the recent theoretical and experimental results of channeling of atoms in the standing wave. It considers the channeling (one dimensional localization) of atoms in two configurations of the laser fields: a monochromatic and a bichromatic one dimensional laser fields. A quasi resonant monochromatic laser field creates a spatially periodic potential field with a period equal to a half of the wavelength. When atomic beam crosses standing wave and atoms have a low enough kinetic energy, they are guided into the channels where they move along the channel and oscillate in the transverse direction. To detect this channeling the atoms have been chosen themselves as probes of their position. A scheme of a cooling of atoms through their channeling is based on the adiabatic lowering the standing wave intensity.
Realization of the analogues of optical components for the manipulation of atomic de Broglie waves has recently become possible through the use of laser-based techniques. The strong fields generated by laser light have already been used to reflect atoms using travelling evanescent waves, and to diffract atomic beams through small angles using transmission gratings formed by a standing laser light wave in vacuo. Present experiments aim to combine these techniques to produce a reflection diffraction grating formed by a standing evanescent laser-light field, and to exploit the larger diffraction angles made possible theoretically by such a scheme.
The interaction of a beam of two level atoms with a standing wave laser field has been the subject of extensive investigation in recent times. A standing wave perpendicular to an atomic beam allows the manipulation of the transverse velocity distribution. The interaction of an atomic beam with a strong standing wave laser field has been systematically investigated by both theoretical simulation and experiment in this thesis. We have developed a numerical model based on a continued fraction solution for the light pressure forces to simulate the near perpendicular interaction of an atomic beam with a strong standing wave laser field. The reshaping of the transverse spatial profile of an atomic beam by a perpendicular, near resonant, standing wave laser field is investigated for red detunings using a longitudinal velocity selective detection system. The experimental dependence of the reshaped profile on the longitudinal and transverse atomic velocities agrees well with a continued fraction solution for the light force. In particular, a regime is found where channelling of the atoms near the antinodes of the standing wave produces a central peak in the spatial distribution of the atomic beam in the far field which have also been observed elsewhere.
We describe a relatively large volume dipole laser trap for the confinement of sodium atoms. Two counterpropagating beams, tuned below resonance, with foci separated by approximately one con focal parameter, provide radial confinement via the dipole force and axial confinement by balancing the radiation pressures of the two beams.1 Identical circular polarization for both beams prevents optical pumping and serves to maintain a two-state system. Alternation of the two beams2 is necessary to avoid the effects of standing-wave heating. Additionally, the trapping cycle is alternated with a Doppler cooling cycle2 to achieve low temperatures and long confinement times. Trapping beams of 100 mW focused to 50-μm spot radii and detuned ~2 GHz below the F = 2 to F′= 3 transition of the D2 line provide a well depth of 50 mK and a confinement volume of 10-4 cm3. Analysis of atomic motion and escape mechanisms as well as progress toward the experimental realization of this trap is presented.