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Physical Review Letters

Laser-Guided Atoms in Hollow-Core Optical Fibers

Michael J. Renn, Don Montgomery, O. Vdovin, Dana Z. Anderson, Carl Wieman, Eric Cornell

Published Oct 30, 1995• 307 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have used optical forces to guide atoms through hollow-core optical fibers. Laser light is launched into the hollow region of a glass capillary fiber and guided by grazing-incidence reflection from the walls. When the laser is detuned 1--30 GHz red of the Rb D2 resonance lines, dipole forces attract atoms to the high-intensity region along the axis and guide them through the fiber. We show that atoms may be guided around bends in the fiber and that in initial experiments the atoms experience up to 18 reflections from the potential walls with minimal loss.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.75.3253

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•Jun 7, 1996•0 citations
We have used optical forces to guide atoms through hollow-core optical fibers. Laser light is launched into the hollow region of a glass capillary fiber and guided by grazing-incidence reflection from the walls. When the laser is detuned 1--30 GHz red of the Rb D2 resonance lines, dipole forces attract atoms to the high-intensity region along the axis and guide them through the fiber. We show that atoms may be guided around bends in the fiber and that in initial experiments the atoms experience up to 18 reflections from the potential walls with minimal loss.
We use evanescent laser light to guide atoms through hollow-core optical fibers. The light, detuned to the blue side of rubidium's D2{D}_{2}D2​ resonance lines, is launched into the glass region of a hollow capillary fiber and guided through the fiber by total internal reflection from the glass walls. Atoms interacting with the evanescent component of the field are repelled from the wall and guided through the fiber hollow. A second laser tuned to the red side of resonance is used to initially inject the atoms into the evanescent guide. An optical intensity threshold for guiding is observed as the evanescent-field-induced dipole forces exceed the van der Waals forces.
We present an experimental and theoretical investigation characterizing the flux of laser-guided atoms through hollow-core optical fibers and show how it depends on laser detuning from resonance, laser intensity, and fiber curvature. The guiding employs dipole forces arising from the interaction of the atoms with the optical field. Laser light is focused into the hollow region of 40-\ensuremath{\mu}m-inner-diam capillary fiber and guided through the fiber by grazing incidence reflection from the glass walls. The lowest-order mode is azimuthally symmetric with maximum intensity on the fiber axis and nearly zero intensity at the walls. Rubidium atoms are attracted to the high-intensity region along the axis when the laser is detuned to the red of resonance and consequently guided through the fiber. Of particular interest is the evolution of the atom-flux versus laser-detuning profile of increasing intensity. At low intensities the dipole guiding potential is purely conservative and the flux profile is roughly dispersion shaped. At high intensity, viscous dipole forces heat the atoms and ``burn a hole'' in the flux-detuning curve. We find that transverse heating of the atoms and the exponential attenuation of optical mode intensity limit the distance atoms may be guided to about 20 cm in a 40-\ensuremath{\mu}m-diam fiber. Bending the fiber can reduce the effects of heating on atom flux.
Laser-cooled atoms from a low-velocity atomic source are guided in a hollow-core optical fiber using the evanescent-wave dipole force from blue-detuned laser light launched into the glass region of the fiber. The transverse velocity of the guided atoms corresponds to a temperature of $50 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}.$ We achieve a maximum flux through a 23.5-cm-long fiber of 590 000 atoms/second with a laser power of 55 mWatts at a detuning of 6 GHz. With larger detunings of 40 GHz, spontaneous emission from the atoms inside the fiber can be suppressed and the atom's internal-state population is preserved. We identify two major loss mechanisms for the guiding process and discuss possible solutions.
Summary form only given. We use optical dipole forces to guide neutral rubidium atoms through hollowcore optical fibers. In one configuration, light copropagates in the circular hollow region as a grazing incidence mode. Atoms are attracted to the high intensity region of a beam detuned to the red of rubidium's D2 resonance lines and are thus kept away from the fiber's walls. In a second configuration, light is guided in the annular glass region and it is the evanescent field of this light that repels the atoms from the fiber walls when the light is tuned to the blue side of atomic resonance.
Laser radiation propagating through a hollow-core fiber exerts a central force on atoms toward the beam axis. Motion of Cs atoms guided through a glass capillary by the optical gradient force is experimentally investigated by the parametric excitation method, in which periodic modulation of the potential depth resonantly enhances atomic oscillations around the fiber axis. Broadband structure of the observed excitation spectrum reflects an amplitude dependence of the characteristic frequency of oscillation in the nonlinear potential. Numerical analysis predicts that transverse atomic motion becomes chaotic when the optical potential depth is periodically modulated.
Summary form only given. We present a theoretical model aimed at interpreting our experiments on optical guiding of neutral atoms through hollow-core fibers. We present calculations of the atomic flux of atoms guided through a fiber and investigate its dependence on the intensity of the laser light, detuning from the resonance and the fiber bend radius. For relatively short and/or large-diameter fibers the contribution of the nonconservative force is negligible and the experimental results are well described by the conservative contribution. In the opposite limit we find a clear signature of the viscous heating force manifested in the appearance of additional maxima in the dependence of the flux on the detuning and in the decrease of the flux with laser intensity.