Cold-atom microscope shapes up

Ye Tian, Zhongchi Zhang, Jilai Ye +3 more

A quantum gas microscope plays an important role in cold-atom experiments, which provides a high-resolution imaging of the spatial distributions of cold atoms. Here we design, build and calibrate an integrated microscope for quantum gases with all the optical components fixed outside the vacuum chamber. It provides large numerical aperture (NA) of 0.75, as well as good optical access from side for atom loading in cold-atom experiments due to long working distance (7 mm fused silica+6 mm vacuum) of the microscope objective. We make a special design of the vacuum viewport with a T-shape window, to suppress the window flatness distortion introduced by the metal-glass binding process, and protect the high-resolution imaging from distortions due to unflattened window. The achieved Strehl ratio is 0.9204 using scanning-near-field microscopy (SNOM) fiber coupling incoherent light as point light source.

M. Gierling, Philipp Schneeweiß, G. Vişănescu +6 more

Andreas Günther, Hendrik Hölscher, József Fortágh

Yu-xin Liu, Zhanfeng Hou, Y. Zhang +1 more

A microscopic theory is presented for identifying shape-phase structures and transitions in interacting fermion systems. The method provides a microscopic description for collective shape-phases, and reveals detailed dependence of such shape-phases on microscopic interaction strengths. The theory is generally applicable to fermion systems such as nuclei, quarks, and in particular trapped cold atoms, where shape-phases may be observed and investigated in a controlled manner.

John Maddox

N. Cooper, Elisa Da Ros, Chad Briddon +3 more

We discuss the trapping of cold atoms within microscopic voids drilled perpendicularly through the axis of an optical waveguide. The dimensions of the voids considered are between 1 and 40 optical wavelengths. By simulating light transmission across the voids, we find that appropriate shaping of the voids can substantially reduce the associated loss of optical power. Our results demonstrate that the formation of an optical cavity around such a void could produce strong coupling between the atoms and the guided light. By bringing multiple atoms into a single void and exploiting collective enhancement, cooperativities ~400 or more should be achievable. The simulations are carried out using a finite difference time domain method. Methods for the production of such a void and the trapping of cold atoms within it are also discussed.