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Journal de Physique IV (Proceedings)

A beam-splitter for cold atoms realised with two dipole guides

Laurence Pruvost, Demascoth Kadio, Olivier Houdé

Published Jun 1, 2002• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

\nA beam-splitter for cold atoms is realised with two dipole guides which intersect. Each guide is created by an intense laser beam produced by a Nd:YAG laser. The cold atom cloud, introduced in one guide via the gravity field, is split into two parts when it passes through the intersection region of the guides. The laser frequency is so far detuned from the rubidium atomic resonance that guiding and splitting are obtained without any losses. The coupling in the guide intersection is strong enough to realise an output angle of 7° and an efficiency of 40%. With the beam-splitter a macroscopic separation of the atomic packets larger than one millimetre is demonstrated at a distance of about 5 mm after the intersection. Furthermore the split atomic clouds are guided in each arm of the beam-splitter. Details about the guides (realisation and performance) and an application using a concave atomic mirror are also given in order to describe the beam-splitter and its use.\n

DOI
10.1051/jp4:20020103

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\nA beam-splitter for cold atoms is realised with two dipole guides which intersect. Each guide is created by an intense laser beam produced by a Nd:YAG laser. The cold atom cloud, introduced in one guide via the gravity field, is split into two parts when it passes through the intersection region of the guides. The laser frequency is so far detuned from the rubidium atomic resonance that guiding and splitting are obtained without any losses. The coupling in the guide intersection is strong enough to realise an output angle of 7° and an efficiency of 40%. With the beam-splitter a macroscopic separation of the atomic packets larger than one millimetre is demonstrated at a distance of about 5 mm after the intersection. Furthermore the split atomic clouds are guided in each arm of the beam-splitter. Details about the guides (realisation and performance) and an application using a concave atomic mirror are also given in order to describe the beam-splitter and its use.\n
A theoretical model is presented for the study of the dynamics of a cold atomic cloud falling in the gravity field in the presence of two crossing dipole guides. The cloud is split between the two branches of this laser guide, and we compare experimental measurements of the splitting efficiency with semiclassical simulations. We then explore the possibilities of optimization of this beam splitter. Our numerical study also gives access to detailed information, such as the atom temperature after the splitting.
Summary form only given. The widespread use of magneto-optical traps (MOT) and the development of BEC over the last 10 years have led to the field of atom optics. This field requires the use of equivalent elements to optical mirrors, lenses and beam splitters. The generation of a large deviation atomic beam splitter is one of the most important goals, as it allows the construction of atom interferometers. Optical methods for achieving these elements are enticing, as the use of laser beams would make it easier to alter parameters of your guides within a vacuum chamber. Recent work has demonstrated the use of optical beams to guide and split atoms from a cold atom source. Here we present novel experimental studies of the optical guiding (in both the red- and blue-detuned regime) of a low-velocity intense source (LVIS) of atoms emanating from a rubidium MOT.
Abstract In order to generate one or two cold molecular beams that have neither a permanent electric dipole moment nor a magnetic dipole one, a controllable scheme to form an all-optical velocity filter and molecular beam splitter by using two red-detuned, crossing and cavity-enhanced guiding laser beams is proposed, and both the dynamic velocity filtering and beam splitting processes of the guided cold I 2 molecular beam are studied by using the three-dimensional Monte Carlo method. Our study shows that by adjusting the laser power difference between the two guiding laser beams from −124 W to 124 W, a splitting ratio of the two-arm output molecular beams from about 10.3% to 89.7% can be obtained. Also, by adjusting the intersection angle between the two standing wave cavities from 80° to 10°, an adjustable splitting ratio from about 1.6% to 98.4% can be obtained. If the intersection angle between the guided oblique beam and the guided straight beam is set to 80°, a cold I 2 molecular beam with a full-width at half-maximum longitudinal velocity of 1 m s −1 and a longitudinal temperature of 8 mK can be generated by using an all-optical velocity filter.
We perform an experimental and theoretical study of a novel distributed quasi-Bragg splitter for cold atoms propagating in crossed optical waveguides. The atoms are guided by horizontal red-detuned laser beams which cross with an angle of roughly 90°. The lattice formed by the interference between the two waveguides is used as a quasi-Bragg splitter to continuously deflect the atomic flux from one waveguide into the other. In the limit of strong waveguide confinement and depending on the velocity of the cloud, three main regimes are observed corresponding (1) to the absence of reflection, (2) to partial reflection and (3) to full reflection into the second waveguide. In view of the application to atom interferometry, the condition to split the cloud into mainly two equally-populated fragments is only met in the highest velocity regime, where the fraction of reflected and transmitted atoms can be controlled by tuning the lattice height. A diagnostic of the momentum distribution shows that a quasi-Bragg splitter with the occupation of mainly two momentum states is achieved in this regime. This behaviour can be understood by considering the band structure associated with the potential in the crossing region and agrees with numerical simulations of the atomic dynamics.