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Journal of Optics A Pure and Applied Optics

Deflecting, focusing, and funnelling atoms by near-field light

Hajime Ito, Kazuo Yamamoto, Akifumi Takamizawa, H. Kashiwagi, Takashi Yatsui

Published Mar 23, 2006• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe atom deflection with a slit-type deflector as an elemental technique of precise atom control using near-field light. In the demonstration experiments, cold Rb atoms deflected by repulsive near-field light induced in a 200?nm-wide slit are detected by means of two-step photoionization. Then, we consider a near-field-light lens of atomic de Broglie waves by developing the atom deflector. The feasibility of nanofocusing is shown by numerical analyses with Fourier atom optics. Finally, we describe atom funnels with evanescent light to generate a cold atomic beam required for atom manipulation using nanometric near-field light. The flux intensity of cold Rb atoms outputted from a 240??m outlet is estimated to be 7.5 ? 107?atom?cm?2?s?1 at a blue detuning of 1.2?GHz. In order to increase the flux intensity to 1012?atom?cm?2?s?1, we develop a Si-made funnel with a micron-sized outlet.

DOI
10.1088/1464-4258/8/4/s16

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European Quantum Electronics Conference (EQEC)•Jan 18, 2006•0 citations
We describe atom deflection with a slit-type deflector as an elemental technique of precise atom control using near-field light. In the demonstration experiments, cold Rb atoms deflected by repulsive near-field light induced in a 200?nm-wide slit are detected by means of two-step photoionization. Then, we consider a near-field-light lens of atomic de Broglie waves by developing the atom deflector. The feasibility of nanofocusing is shown by numerical analyses with Fourier atom optics. Finally, we describe atom funnels with evanescent light to generate a cold atomic beam required for atom manipulation using nanometric near-field light. The flux intensity of cold Rb atoms outputted from a 240??m outlet is estimated to be 7.5 ? 107?atom?cm?2?s?1 at a blue detuning of 1.2?GHz. In order to increase the flux intensity to 1012?atom?cm?2?s?1, we develop a Si-made funnel with a micron-sized outlet.
We demonstrated an atom funnel using blue-detuned near-field light. Cold Rb atoms generated by a magneto-optical trap (MOT) were introduced into the funnel and the output atoms were counted by an accumulative MOT detection system. The number of cold Rb atoms outputted from a 200-/spl mu/m exit hole was maximal at a blue detuning of 1.2 GHz under Sisyphus cooling. The flux intensity was estimated to be 10/sup 5/ atoms/cm/sup 2/s. To increase the flux intensity up to 10/sup 13/ atoms/cm/sup 2/s, we made an atom funnel with a 2-/spl mu/m exit hole.
We present a new scheme of atom manipulation by means of a sharpened optical fiber with near-field light. In particular, we discuss the feasibility of deflecting and trapping Rb atoms. The optical potential produced by the dipole force is estimated from numerical calculations based on the Yukawa-type intensity distribution. We show that a slow Rb atom can be deflected at a large deflection angle. A static atom trap can be made near the tip of a sharpened fiber. A cold Rb atom is captured at the minimum of the trap potential composed of the repulsive optical potential and the attractive van der Waals potential. A spatial intensity distribution of an optical near-field produced near the tip of a protrusion-type fiber is measured in the fiber-to-probe configuration with a shear-force technique. We also describe an atom funnel to form a cold atomic beam required for the near-field light manipulation.
We process a silicon-on-insulator substrate into a funnel structure with a 2-µm-side square-shaped outlet by photolithography, anisotropic chemical etching, sputtering, and drilling with a focused ion beam. The funnel element is designed to generate a cold atomic beam with a high flux intensity of 1 atom/nm 2 ·s using repulsive evanescent light. The evanescent light is produced in TE modes propagating through a 1-µm-thick TiO 2 layer deposited on the slope faces in the case of coupling near-infrared lights for collecting Rb atoms released from a magneto-optical trap. The decay length of evanescent light is measured with a fiber probe in the collection mode.
Summary form only given. We have proposed deflection by an optical near field on a fiber probe to control atoms with high spatial accuracy. In this case, the deflection angle is estimated to be 0.1 degree for a Rb atom with an incident velocity of 10 m/s. It leads to the deviation of 10 /spl mu/m from the incident axis at 1 cm. in the downstream. To detect the deflected atoms with an accuracy of 1%, we need the spatial resolution of 100 nm. However, a commercial detector such as MCP has a low resolution of 50 /spl mu/m at most and the highest resolution that has been reported is 1 /spl mu/m to our knowledge. In addition, these are applied to metastable atoms and have less detection efficiency for the ground state atoms we manipulate. For drastic improvement, we present here a slit-type atom detector with a nanometric lateral resolution. Since the number of atoms deflected by the optical near field is very small, it is important to detect atoms with high efficiency. For this purpose, we use photoionization with two-color optical near fields.