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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

High-speed dynamic spatial control of cold atoms with combined acousto-optic and spatial light modulation

Fredrik K. Fatemi, Mark Bashkansky, Zachary Dutton

Published Feb 8, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate an experimental technique for manipulating atom clouds with high-speed and high resolution. By combining holographically engineered laser beams from a spatial light modulator with acousto-optic deflection, we manipulate the spatial locations of multiple cold atom clouds held in dark optical traps with individual site control. Additionally, we demonstrate smooth 2-dimensional motion of atomic ensembles.

DOI
10.1117/12.701009

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In recent years great progress was made in the spatial control of light with dynamic phase and amplitude modulators such as spatial light modulators and digital micromirror devices. In this work we describe the theory and practice of light shaping with such devices, detailing the spatial control of amplitude, phase and polarisation of coherent laser beams. We use our expertise in generating and measuring light fields with spatially dependent polarisation structures to characterise the correlations between spatial modes and polarisation in such light fields. We do this by adapting concurrence, a quantum measure of entanglement, to these classical correlations. One of the most promising application of coherent laser light is in the control of atomic media via atom-light interactions. In this work we describe the construction of simple external cavity diode lasers designed for the generation of resonant light for atomic physics applications. We exploit these lasers and spatial light modulators to create and measure three-dimensional atomic population structures in a warm rubidium vapour. We also implement a magneto-optic and a dynamic dark spontaneous-force optical trap for rubidium. These traps produce dense (~ 10^11 cm^-3) and cold (~100 uK) clouds of rubidium atoms. We develop the theory of spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency in such traps using rate equations. We find that the absorption of linearly polarised light depends on the relative direction of a magnetic field and the light polarisation. We use the cold atom clouds to measure the direction of magnetic fields by using this dependence and laser beams with structured polarisation.