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Physical Review Letters

Propagation of Cold Atoms along a Miniature Magnetic Guide

M. Key, Ifan G. Hughes, Wilbert Rooijakkers, B. E. Sauer, Edward A. Hinds, David John Richardson, Peter G. Kazansky

Published Feb 14, 2000• 152 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A cloud of laser-cooled 85Rb atoms is coupled through a magnetic funnel into a miniature waveguide formed by four current-carrying wires embedded in a silica fiber. The atom cloud has a approximately 100 &mgr;m radius within the fiber and propagates over cm distances. We study the coupling, propagation, and transverse distribution of atoms in the fiber, and find good agreement with theory. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility of miniature guides as a tool in the new field of integrated atom optics, leading to single-mode propagation of de Broglie waves and the possible preparation of 1D atom clouds.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.84.1371

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Oct 21, 2004•0 citations
A cloud of laser-cooled 85Rb atoms is coupled through a magnetic funnel into a miniature waveguide formed by four current-carrying wires embedded in a silica fiber. The atom cloud has a approximately 100 &mgr;m radius within the fiber and propagates over cm distances. We study the coupling, propagation, and transverse distribution of atoms in the fiber, and find good agreement with theory. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility of miniature guides as a tool in the new field of integrated atom optics, leading to single-mode propagation of de Broglie waves and the possible preparation of 1D atom clouds.
This thesis presents the first demonstration of a guide for cold atoms based on a miniature structure of four current-carrying wires. The four wires are embedded within a hollow silica fibre. Atoms are guided along the centre of a fifth hole on the axis of the fibre by the Stern-Gerlach force. A vapour cell Magneto Optical Trap (MOT), formed 1 cm above the mouth of the waveguide is the source of cold "8"5Rb atoms. After cooling the atoms to 25 #mu#K in optical molasses they fall under the influence of gravity through a magnetic funnel into the waveguide. After propagating for 2 cm, the atoms are reflected by the field of a small pinch coil wound around the base of the guide. The atoms then travel back up the fibre and out into the funnel, where they can be imaged either in fluorescence or by recapturing in the MOT. A video sequence of atoms falling into the guide and re-emerging after reflection from the pinch coil graphically illustrates the operation of the guide. The coupling efficiency and transverse temperature of the atoms is measured experimentally and in a Monte-Carlo simulation. We find an optimum coupling efficiency of 12% and we measure the spatial extent of the cloud within the fibre to be of order 100 #mu#m. We find good agreement between experimental data and results from the numerical simulation. We have also been able to observe different thresholds for the reflection of different positive m_F levels. In another experiment we are able to trap the atoms in an elongated Ioffe trap for up to two seconds, increasing the distance over which the atoms are guided. We are able to guide the atoms over distances of 40 cm with a loss rate indistinguishable from the free space loss rate. (author)
We have developed a waveguide for atoms based on magnetic confinement within a hollow glass fibre. Weak-field-seeking atoms are transported along a central hole and are prevented from hitting the wall by the magnetic field due to four current-carrying wires embedded in the fibre. A 'pinch' coil wound around the fibre plugs the guide at one end with a magnetic field strong enough to reflect the weak-field-seeking atoms. We have demonstrated that all the positivemFsublevels of the85RbF= 3 ground state are guided and have made a movie of the atom dynamics.
Summary form only given. Just as optical waveguides play a central role in many aspects of modern optics, from communications to integrated optics, atom waveguides are likely to be an enabling technology for future atom-optics-based science. In particular, well-characterized atom waveguides may make possible inertial and rotation measurements of exquisite sensitivity via large-enclosed-area atom interferometers. The first guides for atoms were based on optical forces, where hollow glass fibers guide light, and the light in turn guides atoms. In this paper we have guided neutral atoms using photolithographically patterned current-carrying wires in two different configurations.
We have constructed a tapered magnetic atom guide that is integrated with a magneto-optical trap. We have observed atom guiding over distances of up to 20 cm. This integrated strategy is useful for loading atoms into wire guides. We have shown that tapered sections in atom guides. i.e. sections with a variable steepness of the transverse guiding potential, can reflect atoms propagating in the guide. The reflection arises from the adiabatic conservation of the action of the transverse motion; the latter can be used as a control parameter for the atom reflectivity. A method of producing a slow, dark atomic beam of atoms is demonstrated. Atoms that are extracted from a magneto-optical trap using a push beam are quickly pumped into a dark state, which does not interact with the push laser beam. This method is capable of producing atoms with a velocity of order 1 m/s. The slow atoms can be coupled into atom guides. In related research, we observe tunneling resonances of atoms in a 1D optical lattice through the measurement of the magnetization. These resonances manifest themselves as modulations in the magnetization curves. The resonances are shown to be related to the coherence properties of the atoms, and exist only under conditions where the coherence time exceeds the tunneling period of the atoms.
A versatile miniature de Broglie waveguide is formed by two parallel current-carrying wires in the presence of a uniform bias field. We derive a variety of analytical expressions to describe the guide and present a quantum theory to show that it offers a remarkable range of possibilities for atom manipulation on the submicron scale. These include controlled and coherent splitting of the wave function as well as cooling, trapping, and guiding. In particular, we discuss a novel microscopic atom interferometer with the potential to be exceedingly sensitive.
We study modal propagation of cold atomic gases in a straight magnetic waveguide consisting of a current wire and a uniform magnetic field. This configuration is known to generate a transverse confining potential for atoms with magnetic dipole moment oriented anti-parallel to the magnetic field. The potential has azimuthal symmetry to first order in powers of the atomic distance to the waveguide axis. We obtain the modal dispersion curves by means of the WKB quantization method, and introduce a parameter Q that characterizes symmetric atomic waveguides as the parameter V does in optical fibers. We simulate propagation of cold atomic beams by means of the BPM (Beam Propagation Method) and show the spatial evolution of transverse monomode and multimode profiles obtained for different values of Q and arbitrary input beam profiles. We demonstrate, analytically and numerically, the existence of a threshold Q-value for guidance of matter waves analogous to the V-threshold for propagation in a TE00 mode in optical fibers and obtain that, under the experimental conditions reported in the literature, the already observed Gaussian profile of guided atomic beams corresponds to multimode propagation. RIAO/OPTILAS'04.