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Quantum Electronics

Optical response of alkali metal atoms confined in nanoporous glass

A. Burchianti, C. Marinelli, E. Mariotti, Andrea Bogi, Luca Marmugi, S Giomi, M Maccari, Stefano Veronesi, L. Moi

Published Mar 28, 2014• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the influence of optical radiation on adsorption and desorption processes of alkali metal atoms confined in nanoporous glass matrices. Exposure of the sample to near-IR or visible light changes the atomic distribution inside the glass nanopores, forcing the entire system to evolve towards a different state. This effect, due to both atomic photodesorption and confinement, causes the growth and evaporation of metastable nanoparticles. It is shown that, by a proper choice of light characteristics and pore size, these processes can be controlled and tailored, thus opening new perspectives for fabrication of nanostructured surfaces.

DOI
10.1070/qe2014v044n03abeh014774

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We study the influence of optical radiation on adsorption and desorption processes of alkali metal atoms confined in nanoporous glass matrices. Exposure of the sample to near-IR or visible light changes the atomic distribution inside the glass nanopores, forcing the entire system to evolve towards a different state. This effect, due to both atomic photodesorption and confinement, causes the growth and evaporation of metastable nanoparticles. It is shown that, by a proper choice of light characteristics and pore size, these processes can be controlled and tailored, thus opening new perspectives for fabrication of nanostructured surfaces.
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We demonstrate that, in nanoporous glass loaded with rubidium, atomic photodesorption and confinement determine a new regime where, depending on light frequency, atoms move from pore surface to clusters and vice versa. This process modifies the optical properties of porous glass which turns blue when clusters grow up and turns back transparent when they dissolve. Therefore light works as a pencil or as an eraser and clusters work as ink. This effect allows for printing/wiping out images and for keeping memory of the light color pulse sequence for quite long time.
We review some recent studies on light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) from dielectric surfaces. Alkali-metal atoms adsorbed either on organic films or on porous glass are released into the vapor phase under illumination. The measurements were performed in Pyrex resonance cells either coated with siloxane films or containing a porous glass sample. In both cases, the experimental results show that LIAD can be used to produce atomic densities suitable for most atomic physics experiments. Moreover, we find that photoinduced effects, correlated with LIAD, produce reversible formation and evaporation of alkali-metal clusters in porous glass. These processes depend on the light frequency, making the porous glass transmittance controllable by light.
We observe reversible light assisted formation and evaporation of rubidium clusters embedded in nanoporous silica. Metallic nanoparticles are cyclically produced and evaporated by weak blue-green and near-infrared light, respectively. The atoms photodetached from the huge surface of the silica matrix build up clusters, whereas cluster evaporation is increased by induced surface plasmon excitation. Frequency tuning of light activates either one process or the other and the related changes of glass transparency become visible to the naked eye. We demonstrate that the porous silica, loaded with rubidium, shows memory of illumination sequences behaving as a rereadable and rewritable optical medium. These processes take place as a consequence of the strong confinement of atoms and particles at the nanoscale.
Huge light-induced rubidium atom desorption has been observed from porous silica samples placed inside Pyrex cells kept at room temperature. The desorption rate and the maximum vapour density change have been measured as a function of the desorbing light intensity. Their values are comparable with those recently obtained in Pyrex cells coated with organic films. A linear dependence of the desorption rate and a square-root dependence of the maximum density increase on light intensity indicate that diffusion inside the glass pores is a key mechanism. The application of this effect to develop light-controlled atomic dispensers compatible with high vacuum environment is discussed.
We present in this paper recent results on Light - Induced Atom Desorption (LIAD) in sealed and open coated cells. LIAD is defined via the description of an experiment on rubidium atoms stored in a dry - film coated cell, where a few milliwatts of even non coherent and non resonant light are able to increase the alkali atomic density for more than one order of magnitude. Modeling of the effect is given. New features become relevant in the case of LIAD in porous glasses: in fact, although the photodesorption efficiency per unit area in bare glass is much lower, photoatomic sources can be prepared, due to the huge inner surface of porous samples. We applied LIAD from organic coatings to the stabilization of alkali densities out of equilibrium: sodium case is here discussed. Finally, we report on fully original, preliminary measurements of rubidium Magneto - Optical Trap loading via LIAD from a dry - film coated cell.