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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Measurement of the van der Waals force using reflection of cold atoms from magnetic thin-film atom mirrors

Ashok Kumar Mohapatra, C. S. Unnikrishnan

Published Feb 7, 2006• 31 citations

Abstract

\n \nWe report on a measurement of the van der Waals interaction between rubidium\natoms in the ground state and a metallic surface, employing a new method\ninvolving reflection of laser-cooled atoms from magnetic thin-film atom\nmirrors. We made use of the fact that the typical distance from which atoms\nreflect from thin-film magnetic mirrors is of the order of the magnetic \ndomain size and the thickness of the thin film. The modification of the \nreflectivity of cold atoms from cobalt thin-film magnetic mirrors, with \nthickness in the range of $200\\mbox{--}20\\un{nm}$, due to the competition between the \nattractive atom-surface interaction and the repulsive magnetic interaction \nenabled the measurement of the van der Waals force in the range 20–$50\\un{nm}$ \nwith an uncertainty of 15%. The measured value agrees well with recent\ntheoretical estimates.\n\n

DOI: 10.1209/epl/i2005-10477-3

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\n \nWe report on a measurement of the van der Waals interaction between rubidium\natoms in the ground state and a metallic surface, employing a new method\ninvolving reflection of laser-cooled atoms from magnetic thin-film atom\nmirrors. We made use of the fact that the typical distance from which atoms\nreflect from thin-film magnetic mirrors is of the order of the magnetic \ndomain size and the thickness of the thin film. The modification of the \nreflectivity of cold atoms from cobalt thin-film magnetic mirrors, with \nthickness in the range of

200\\mbox{--}20\\un{nm}

, due to the competition between the \nattractive atom-surface interaction and the repulsive magnetic interaction \nenabled the measurement of the van der Waals force in the range 20–

50\\un{nm}

\nwith an uncertainty of 15%. The measured value agrees well with recent\ntheoretical estimates.\n\n

We have observed the deflection of Rydberg atoms towards a metallic surface by the van der Waals force. Cs and Na atoms in states of principal quantum number n were sent between two parallel gold-coated mirrors, spaced by a gap w (2.1 \ensuremath{\mu}m\ensuremath{\le}w\ensuremath{\le}8.5 \ensuremath{\mu}m). We measured the value

{n}_{m}

at which the transmission cuts off and from the variation of

{n}_{m}

versus w, we obtained a measure of the atom-surface interaction. For

12<n<30

this interaction is 3--4 orders of magnitude larger than for ground-state atoms, and it obeys the scaling laws of the Lennard-Jones model.

After a brief introduction to the field of atom optics and to atomic mirrors, we present experimental results obtained in our group during the last two years while studying the reflection of rubidium atoms by an evanescent wave. These involve the first measurement of the van der Waals force between an atom in its ground state and a dielectric wall, as well as the demonstration of a reflection grating for atoms at normal incidence. We also consider the influence of quantum reflection and tunnelling phenomena. Further studies using the atomic mirror as a probe of the van der Waals interaction, and of very small surface roughness are briefly discussed.

We analyze the possibilities of approaching atom-surface interactions through their contribution to the atomic matter de Broglie wave phase, in an interferometer based on an evanescent light atomic mirror. The surface interactions produce an additional phase shift that is evaluated to a few times \ensuremath{\pi} for a neon atom in a metastable state. We propose and investigate an experimental procedure that uses the principles of polarization (for instance, Stern-Gerlach) interferometers in order to monitor these long-range interactions (van der Waals, Casimir-Polder, etc.) between a ground-state or metastable-state atom and either a metallic or a dielectric surface. Our approach gives access to the differential phase shift between Zeeman sublevels, and should then be sensitive to an eventual anisotropy of the atom-surface interaction.

We study the photoassociative process between cold atoms and a surface. A mechanism to confine free cold atoms in a planar waveguide, characterized by the long-range atom-surface van der Waals potential and based on radiative transitions, is presented. We propose that the vibrational states of this potential can be probed by reflection spectroscopy, giving information about the

{C}_{3}

van der Waals coefficients.