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Optics Letters

Optical dipole mirror for cold atoms based on a metallic diffraction grating

Tomasz Kawalec, Dobrosława Bartoszek-Bober, Roman Panaś, Jacek Fiutowski, Aleksandra Sierant, Horst‐Günter Rubahn

Published May 8, 2014• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report on the realization of a plasmonic dipole mirror for cold atoms based on a metallic grating coupler. A cloud of atoms is reflected by the repulsive potential generated by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited on a reflection gold grating by a 780 nm laser beam. Experimentally and numerically determined mirror efficiencies are close to 100%. The intensity of SPPs above a real grating coupler and the atomic trajectories, as well as the momentum dispersion of the atom cloud being reflected, are computed. A suggestion is given as to how the plasmonic mirror might serve as an optical atom chip.

DOI
10.1364/ol.39.002932

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We report on the realization of a plasmonic dipole mirror for cold atoms based on a metallic grating coupler. A cloud of atoms is reflected by the repulsive potential generated by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited on a reflection gold grating by a 780 nm laser beam. Experimentally and numerically determined mirror efficiencies are close to 100%. The intensity of SPPs above a real grating coupler and the atomic trajectories, as well as the momentum dispersion of the atom cloud being reflected, are computed. A suggestion is given as to how the plasmonic mirror might serve as an optical atom chip.
Abstract This paper reports on conceptual and experimental work towards the realization of plasmonic surface traps for cold atoms. The trapping mechanism is based on the combination of a repulsive and an attractive potential generated by evanescent light waves that are plasmonically enhanced. The strength of enhancement can be locally manipulated via the thickness of a metal nanolayer deposited on top of a dielectric substrate. Thus, in principle the trapping geometry can be predefined by the metal layer design. We present simulations of a plasmonic lattice potential using a gold grating with sinusoidally modulated thickness. Experimentally, a first plasmonic test structure is presented and characterized. Furthermore, the surface potential landscape is detected by reflecting ultracold atom clouds from the test structure revealing the influence of both evanescent waves. A parameter range is identified where stable traps can be expected.
The paper reports on the optical detection and spectroscopy of ultracold atoms near a gold surface.A probe light field is used to excite surface plasmon polaritons.The refractive index of the atomic gas shifts the plasmon resonance and changes the reflected light power.Thus, the sensitivity of the detection is plasmonically enhanced.Absorption of photons from the evanescent wave is avoided by detuning the laser from atomic resonance which makes the detection scheme potentially nondestructive.The spectrum of the signal is determined by a Fano resonance.We show that atoms can be detected nondestructively with single atom resolution for typical parameters in cold atom experiments.Thus, the method is suitable for quantum nondemolition measurements of matter wave amplitudes.Experimentally, we measure a technically limited sensitivity of 30 atoms and extend the detection scheme to dispersively image the atom cloud near the surface.
It has recently been shown that optical reflection gratings fabricated directly into an atom chip provide a simple and effective way to trap and cool substantial clouds of atoms (Nshii et al. in Nat Nanotechnol 8:321-324, 2013; McGilligan et al. in Opt Express 23(7):8948-8959, 2015). In this article, we describe how the gratings are designed and microfabricated and we characterise their optical properties, which determine their effectiveness as a cold atom source. We use simple scalar diffraction theory to understand how the morphology of the gratings determines the power in the diffracted beams.
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Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) lasing requires population inversion, it is inefficient and possesses poor spectral properties. We develop an inversion-less concept for a quantum plasmonic waveguide that exploits unidirectional superradiant SPP (SSPP) emission of radiation to produce intense coherent surface plasmon beams. Our scheme includes a resonantly driven cold atomic medium in a lossless dielectric situated above an ultra-low loss negative index metamaterial (NIMM) layer. We propose generating unidirectional superradiant radiation of the plasmonic field within an atomic medium and a NIMM layer interface and achieve amplified SPPs by introducing phase-match between the superradiant SPP wave and coupled laser fields. We also establish a parametric resonance between the weak modulated plasmonic field and the collective oscillations of the atomic ensemble, thereby suppressing decoherence of the stably amplified directional polaritonic mode. Our method incorporates the quantum gain of the atomic medium to obtain sufficient conditions for coherent amplification of superradiant SPP waves, and we explore this method to quantum dynamics of the atomic medium being coupled with the weak polaritonic waves. Our waveguide configuration acts as a surface plasmon laser and quantum plasmonic transistor and opens prospects for designing controllable nano-scale lasers for quantum and nano-photonic applications.
We propose a scheme to generate one-dimensional (1D) dark hollow lattices to trap and guide cold atoms periodically at the nanometer scale by surface plasmons (SP) excited on the periodic metallic strips (arrays) with the blue-detuned light.Intensity and optical potential in the trap are calculated by Comsol method, and it shows that closed contour lines of SP intensity and optical potential can realize the effective trapping and guiding of cold atoms in our 1D lattices.Cold atoms are trapped in the region with a section diameter about 30 nm, by which the trap has a large intensity gradient (> 3 13 m W 10 ).