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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

Dark optical traps for ultra-cold atoms

Nir Davidson

Published Nov 18, 2003• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Dark optical traps use repulsive light forces to confine atoms mostly in the dark where their interaction with the trapping light is largely reduced, to enable long coherence times of the trapped atoms combined with tight confinement. We report on single-beam dark optical traps for ultra-cold atoms. These traps were used to demonstrate new spectroscopic and dynamical effects of the trapped atoms, including the observation of regular and chaotic motion in so called optical "billiards."

DOI
10.1117/12.525477

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Dark optical traps use repulsive light forces to confine atoms mostly in the dark where their interaction with the trapping light is largely reduced, to enable long coherence times of the trapped atoms combined with tight confinement. We report on single-beam dark optical traps for ultra-cold atoms. These traps were used to demonstrate new spectroscopic and dynamical effects of the trapped atoms, including the observation of regular and chaotic motion in so called optical "billiards."
A new magneto-optical trap is demonstrated which confines atoms predominantly in a ``dark'' hyperfine level, that does not interact with the trapping light. This leads to much higher atomic densities as repulsive forces between atoms due to rescattered radiation are reduced and trap loss due to excited-state collisions is diminished. In such a trap, more than 1010{10}^{10}1010 sodium atoms have been confined to densities approaching 1012{10}^{12}1012 atoms ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$.
Summary form only given. Blue-detuned optical traps confine neutral atoms mostly in the dark, therefore reducing the perturbations induced by the trapping light on the atoms. Recently, traps based on a single laser beam were demonstrated, providing greater experimental simplicity and enabling dynamical changes of the trap geometry and strength. However, all these traps have a large difference in the potential strength in the radial and axial directions, resulting in a very inefficient use of the available laser power, and a poor loading efficiency from the magneto-optical trap. In this work we present a novel optical scheme to generate an optimal trap, which maximizes the trap depth, and greatly reduces the light-induced perturbations to the atoms. This is achieved by surrounding a dark volume with a light envelope having (a) an almost minimal surface area for a given volume, (b) the minimal wall thickness allowed by diffraction, and (c) an almost constant wall height on every point on the envelope. The stiffness of the walls, combined with the large detuning allowed by the efficient distribution of light intensity, yield a very low photon scattering rate for the trapped atoms.
Summary form only given. The motion of a particle inside a closed area surrounded by reflecting walls can be integrable or chaotic, depending on the shape of the boundary. These billiards serve as a good and simple model to study chaotic dynamics both classically and quantum mechanically. Recently, we realized an "atom-optics billiard", where ultra-cold atoms are trapped inside a dark optical trap, whose shape can be varied to create different atom dynamics. In this work we describe how scattering and wall softness influence the dynamics of the atoms, and destroy or create stability.