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Physical Review Letters

Holographic Manipulation of a Cold Atomic Beam

Makoto Morinaga, Masami Yasuda, T. Kishimoto, Fujio Shimizu, Jun‐ichi Fujita, Shinji Matsui

Published Jul 29, 1996• 80 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A method of generating an arbitrary pattern of atoms by using an interferometric technique is reported. A laser-cooled metastable Ne atomic beam in the ${1s}_{3}$ state is diffracted by a computer generated binary hologram. A black-and-white pattern is drawn on a microchannel detector with a spatial resolution exceeding $65\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ and a resolving power better than $30$.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.77.802

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A method of generating an arbitrary pattern of atoms by using an interferometric technique is reported. A laser-cooled metastable Ne atomic beam in the 1s3{1s}_{3}1s3​ state is diffracted by a computer generated binary hologram. A black-and-white pattern is drawn on a microchannel detector with a spatial resolution exceeding 65\ensuremathμm65\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}65\ensuremathμm and a resolving power better than 303030.
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We describe various techniques to manipulate laser-cooled Ne atoms interferometrically by using a silicon nitride film with holes and electrode deposition. Laser-cooled Ne atoms pass through a computer-generated through-hole binary hologram and generate an atomic image on a substrate. The hologram can be designed to provide a spherical phase correction, and the reconstructed pattern is focused on the substrate at a finite distance from the hologram. Such holographic manipulation can be extended to gray-scaled reconstruction that is used to deposit relief-like 3D atomic patterns on surfaces. In addition, an atom interacts with electric, magnetic, and optical fields. This provides the holographic atomic-wave manipulation to perform functions that are difficult for a light wave. The Stark shift induced by an external electric field is used to switch and to modify atomic patterns in real time. We also introduce an reflecting type atom holography by using quantum reflection.
Summary form only given. We have demonstrated the manipulation of a cold neon atomic beam in a metastable state by using a silicon nitride thin film with holes that expressed the pattern of a binary hologram. The atoms that passed through the computer generated binary hologram reconstructed an arbitrary pattern of atoms on the surface of a microchannel plate detector. In this paper we describe the technique that enables us to control the reconstructed pattern in real time. We deposited regularly spaced stripes of platinum electrodes on the thin film hologram. Holes were open in the gap between the stripes, and we modulated the electric potential of the electrodes. This modulated the phase of the atom that passed through the hole in proportion to the square of the potential difference of the adjacent electrodes. Two types of phase controlled holography were demonstrated.
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Electric-field-controlled holography for atoms is demonstrated. Platinum electrodes are deposited among the array of parallel slits that are made on a silicon nitride film. A cold neon atomic beam in the 1s3[2p5(2Po1/2)3s : J = 0] metastable state is sent through the film and form a Fraunhofer diffraction pattern on a microchannel plate detector that is placed in the downstream of the film. By controlling the potential of each electrode an arbitrary one-dimensional diffraction pattern of atoms has been generated.PACS No. 78.90