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Physical Review Letters

Quasiperiodic Optical Lattices

Luca Guidoni, C. Triché, Philippe Verkerk, G. Grynberg

Published Nov 3, 1997• 157 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the kinetic temperature and the localization of cesium atoms in a three dimensional quasiperiodic optical potential created by the interference of five or six laser beams. Bragg scattering experiments show evidence of a quasiperiodic order for the atomic density. Temperature measurements are consistent with the topological invariance of the optical potential under phase variations of the laser beams. Numerical semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations show results in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.79.3363

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We study the kinetic temperature and the localization of cesium atoms in a three dimensional quasiperiodic optical potential created by the interference of five or six laser beams. Bragg scattering experiments show evidence of a quasiperiodic order for the atomic density. Temperature measurements are consistent with the topological invariance of the optical potential under phase variations of the laser beams. Numerical semiclassical Monte Carlo simulations show results in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations.
We observe coherently enhanced reflection (Bragg scattering) of a near resonant laser beam from cesium atoms ordered by a periodic array of optical potential wells known as an optical lattice. The reflected light is enhanced by a factor of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{5}$ over scattering from a disordered atomic sample. We measure the magnitude of the reflectivity and its detuning dependence as functions of the density and the degree of localization of the atoms. The change in lattice constant due to the frequency-dependent effective index of refraction seen by the lattice light field is observed.
A complete laser cooling setup was built, with focus on threedimensional near-resonant optical lattices for cesium. These consist of regularly ordered micropotentials, created by the interference of four laser beams. One key feature of optical lattices is an inherent ”Sisyphus cooling” process. It efficiently extracts kinetic energy from the atoms, leading to equilibrium temperatures of a few µK. The corresponding kinetic energy is lower than the depth of the potential wells, so that atoms can be trapped. We performed detailed studies of the cooling processes in optical lattices by using the time-of-flight and absorption-imaging techniques. We investigated the dependence of the equilibrium temperature on the optical lattice parameters, such as detuning, optical potential and lattice geometry. The presence of neighbouring transitions in the cesium hyperfine level structure was used to break symmetries in order to identify, which role “red” and “blue” transitions play in the cooling. We also examined the limits for the cooling process in optical lattices, and the possible difference in steady-state velocity distributions for different directions. Moreover, in collaboration with ´Ecole Normale Sup´erieure in Paris, numerical simulations were performed in order to get more insight in the cooling dynamics of optical lattices. Optical lattices can keep atoms almost perfectly isolated from the environment and have therefore been suggested as a platform for a host of possible experiments aimed at coherent quantum manipulations, such as spin-squeezing and the implementation of quantum logic-gates. We developed a novel way to trap two different cesium ground states in two distinct, interpenetrating optical lattices, and to change the distance between sites of one lattice relative to sites of the other lattice. This is a first step towards the implementation of quantum simulation schemes in optical lattices.
A complete laser cooling setup was built, with focus on threedimensional near-resonant optical lattices for cesium. These consist of regularly ordered micropotentials, created by the interference of four laser beams. One key feature of optical lattices is an inherent ”Sisyphus cooling” process. It efficiently extracts kinetic energy from the atoms, leading to equilibrium temperatures of a few µK. The corresponding kinetic energy is lower than the depth of the potential wells, so that atoms can be trapped.We performed detailed studies of the cooling processes in optical lattices by using the time-of-flight and absorption-imaging techniques. We investigated the dependence of the equilibrium temperature on the optical lattice parameters, such as detuning, optical potential and lattice geometry. The presence of neighbouring transitions in the cesium hyperfine level structure was used to break symmetries in order to identify, which role “red” and “blue” transitions play in the cooling. We also examined the limits for the cooling process in optical lattices, and the possible difference in steady-state velocity distributions for different directions. Moreover, in collaboration with ´Ecole Normale Sup´erieure in Paris, numerical simulations were performed in order to get more insight in the cooling dynamics of optical lattices.Optical lattices can keep atoms almost perfectly isolated from the environment and have therefore been suggested as a platform for a host of possible experiments aimed at coherent quantum manipulations, such as spin-squeezing and the implementation of quantum logic-gates. We developed a novel way to trap two different cesium ground states in two distinct, interpenetrating optical lattices, and to change the distance between sites of one lattice relative to sites of the other lattice. This is a first step towards the implementation of quantum simulation schemes in optical lattices.
Using Bragg scattering as a sensitive probe, we study how atoms are cooled and localized after the sudden turn-on of 1D and 3D optical lattices. We measure the time evolution of the mean-square position spread of the atoms in the lattice potential wells, a quantity proportional to their effective temperature. The rate of exponential approach to equilibrium is proportional to the photon scattering rate and about 6 times faster in 1D than in 3D. This simple proportionality was unexpected, based on the usual model of Sisyphus cooling, but is in agreement with our 1D Monte Carlo simulations.
We report temperature measurements of atoms trapped in a three-dimensional (3D) optical lattice, a well-defined laser-cooling situation that can be treated with currently available theoretical tools. We also obtain fluorescence spectra from a 3D optical lattice, from which we obtain quantitative information about the trapping atoms, including the oscillation frequencies, spatial localization, and a temperature, which is in good agreement with our direct measurements. For comparison we study a 1D lattice using the same atom (cesium).