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

Precise control of atoms with optical near fields: deflection and trap

Haruhiko Ito, Akifumi Takamizawa, H. Tanioka, Motoichi Ohtsu

Published Sep 22, 1999• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a new scheme of atom manipulation by means of a sharpened optical fiber with near-field light. In particular, we discuss the feasibility of deflecting and trapping Rb atoms. The optical potential produced by the dipole force is estimated from numerical calculations based on the Yukawa-type intensity distribution. We show that a slow Rb atom can be deflected at a large deflection angle. A static atom trap can be made near the tip of a sharpened fiber. A cold Rb atom is captured at the minimum of the trap potential composed of the repulsive optical potential and the attractive van der Waals potential. A spatial intensity distribution of an optical near-field produced near the tip of a protrusion-type fiber is measured in the fiber-to-probe configuration with a shear-force technique. We also describe an atom funnel to form a cold atomic beam required for the near-field light manipulation.

DOI
10.1117/12.363842

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We present a new scheme of atom manipulation by means of a sharpened optical fiber with near-field light. In particular, we discuss the feasibility of deflecting and trapping Rb atoms. The optical potential produced by the dipole force is estimated from numerical calculations based on the Yukawa-type intensity distribution. We show that a slow Rb atom can be deflected at a large deflection angle. A static atom trap can be made near the tip of a sharpened fiber. A cold Rb atom is captured at the minimum of the trap potential composed of the repulsive optical potential and the attractive van der Waals potential. A spatial intensity distribution of an optical near-field produced near the tip of a protrusion-type fiber is measured in the fiber-to-probe configuration with a shear-force technique. We also describe an atom funnel to form a cold atomic beam required for the near-field light manipulation.
Summary form only given. Recently, atom manipulation by using optical near fields has been attracting a lot of interests. Optical near field can be localized in a nanometric region, being free from the diffraction limit in contrast to propagation light. The intensity distribution of optical near field decays rapidly as an exponential-like function. Because such a spatially inhomogeneous light field can affect the resonant force on an atom (the so called dipole force), the optical near field produces the strong dipole force. Using the dipole force of the optical near field, we can expect to manipulate an atom with high spatial accuracy. Moreover, due to the resonant character of the dipole force, we can manipulate an atom species- and state-selectively. The optical near field localized in a nanometric region can be generated on the tip of a sharpened fiber-probe. This kind of fiber probe can be used for deflection of the atomic motion, and then trapping of an atom. To this end, it is very important to fabricate the fiber probe suitable for the atoms used. In this case, we must consider several parameters: a size and a shape of the tip, light intensity, frequency detuning, etc. In order to examine the optimal conditions for the fabrication, we measured and evaluated the optical near-field intensity distribution of the fiber-probe.
We describe atom deflection with a slit-type deflector as an elemental technique of precise atom control using near-field light. In the demonstration experiments, cold Rb atoms deflected by repulsive near-field light induced in a 200?nm-wide slit are detected by means of two-step photoionization. Then, we consider a near-field-light lens of atomic de Broglie waves by developing the atom deflector. The feasibility of nanofocusing is shown by numerical analyses with Fourier atom optics. Finally, we describe atom funnels with evanescent light to generate a cold atomic beam required for atom manipulation using nanometric near-field light. The flux intensity of cold Rb atoms outputted from a 240??m outlet is estimated to be 7.5 ? 107?atom?cm?2?s?1 at a blue detuning of 1.2?GHz. In order to increase the flux intensity to 1012?atom?cm?2?s?1, we develop a Si-made funnel with a micron-sized outlet.
We describe guiding of neutral atoms through a hollow optical fiber with a micron-sized hollow core. Two-step photoionization experiment shows the frequency dispersion properties of the dipole interaction between an atom and an optical near field. These characteristics are advantageous to species- and state-selective manipulation of atoms. Then we discus a new scheme of atom deposition by means of the guiding technique, including a numerical simulation. We also present two methods for controlling atomic motion using a sharped optical fiber with a nanometric optical n ear field, i.e., atom deflection and atom trap. Deflection angle and trap potential are estimated based on a near-field intensity distribution derived from a Yukawa-type screened potential. The manipulation techniques are useful for precise control of atoms with a spatial accuracy beyond diffraction limit, which will lead to atomic-scale crystal growth.
Optical near field realizes the precise control of atomic motion .As the first step, guiding of atoms through micron-sized hollow optical fiber is demonstrated .The two-step laser-photoionization spectroscopy shows the frequency dispersion properties of dipole interaction between atoms and optical near field .The species-and state-selective guidance is applied to in-line spatial separation of two stable Rb isotopes .In addition, the cavity QED (Quantum Electrodynamics) effect inside a dielectric cylinder is observed for the first time.The atom fiber has the faculty of carrying atoms to an arbitrary point over a long distance and then is useful as a novel scheme of optically controlled atomic deposition.The feasibility of creating dot-shaped nano-scale structures is illustrated through measurement of spatial distribution of the guided atom flux .Finally, a method of manipulating atoms beyond the diffraction limit of light waves is presented including sharpened optical fibers and an atomic funnel with optical near field.
Summary form only given. The conventional atom-manipulation techniques with propagating light are limited in spatial accuracy by diffraction effects of light waves. In order to overcome the diffraction limit and increase the manipulation accuracy, we can use the optical near field localized in a nanometer region. Such an optical near field is produced by a fiber probe with a nanometric aperture. We consider manipulating atoms by means of the dipole force from the localized optical near field. In this paper we report on the experimental progress toward the realization of atom manipulation with the nanometric fiber probe.