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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Atom diffraction with a ‘natural’ metastable atom nozzle beam

J.‐C. Karam, N Wipf, Jules Grucker, F Perales, M. Boustimi, G. Vassilev, Valerij Bočvarski, Constantin Maïnos, J. Baudon, Jacques Robert

Published Jul 18, 2005• 21 citations

Abstract

The resonant metastability-exchange process is used to obtain a metastable atom beam with intrinsic properties close to those of a ground-state atom nozzle beam (small angular aperture, narrow velocity distribution). The estimated effective source diameter (15 µm) is small enough to provide at a distance of 597 mm a transverse coherence radius of about 873 nm for argon, 1236 nm for neon and 1660 nm for helium. It is demonstrated both by experiment and numerical calculations with He*, Ne* and Ar* metastable atoms, that this beam gives rise to diffraction effects on the transmitted angular pattern of a silicon-nitride nano-slit grating (period 100 nm). Observed patterns are in good agreement with previous measurements with He* and Ne* metastable atoms. For argon, a calculation taking into account the angular aperture of the beam (0.35 mrad) and the effect of the van der Waals interaction—the van der Waals constant C 3 = 1.83 +0.1 −0.15 au being derived from spectroscopic data—leads to a good agreement with experiment.

DOI: 10.1088/0953-4075/38/15/009

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The resonant metastability-exchange process is used to obtain a metastable atom beam with intrinsic properties close to those of a ground-state atom nozzle beam (small angular aperture, narrow velocity distribution). The estimated effective source diameter (15 µm) is small enough to provide at a distance of 597 mm a transverse coherence radius of about 873 nm for argon, 1236 nm for neon and 1660 nm for helium. It is demonstrated both by experiment and numerical calculations with He*, Ne* and Ar* metastable atoms, that this beam gives rise to diffraction effects on the transmitted angular pattern of a silicon-nitride nano-slit grating (period 100 nm). Observed patterns are in good agreement with previous measurements with He* and Ne* metastable atoms. For argon, a calculation taking into account the angular aperture of the beam (0.35 mrad) and the effect of the van der Waals interaction—the van der Waals constant C 3 = 1.83 +0.1 −0.15 au being derived from spectroscopic data—leads to a good agreement with experiment.

Coherent atom optics experiments making use of an ultra‐narrow beam of fast metastable atoms generated by metastability exchange are reported. The transverse coherence of the beam (coherence radius of 1.7 μm for He*, 1.2 μm for Ne*, 0.87 μm for Ar*) is demonstrated via the atomic diffraction by a non‐magnetic 2μm‐period reflection grating. The combination of the non‐scalar van der Waals (vdW) interaction with the Zeeman interaction generated by a static magnetic field gives rise to “vdW‐Zeeman” transitions among Zeeman sub‐levels. Exo‐energetic transitions of this type are observed with Ne*(3P2) atoms traversing a copper micro‐slit grating. They can be used as a tunable beam splitter in an inelastic Fresnel bi‐prism atom interferometer.

We have measured the diffraction of metastable helium atoms by a transmission grating with a period of 500 nm. The atomic beam is derived from a supersonic nozzle by adiabatic gas expansion with a velocity ratio v/Δv 20; with the nozzle cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature, the corresponding de Broglie wave length of the helium atoms is 1.08 Å. We have observed diffraction peaks up to the third order with a good signal-to-noise ratio. The position and the height of the different orders are in satisfactory agreement with the measured grating shape and the mean velocity in the atomic beam. As was pointed out previously, such transmission gratings offer one way to realize an atom-wave interferometer.1 In this context, our results demonstrate that an efficient diffraction can also be obtained with excited-state atoms: Here the use of metastable rare-gas atoms is of special interest because they are easy to handle and can be detected on almost zero background. As an alternative to the use of transmission gratings in matter-wave interferometry, we also discuss a simple double-slit arrangement that may provide another approach to the study of atomic interference phenomena.

The resonant metastability exchange process in low-energy collinear collisions between metastable argon atoms (Ar* 3 P 2 ) polarized in spin ( M = +2) and ground-state Ar atoms from a nozzle beam is studied by means of a time-of-flight technique. A wide range of metastable atom velocities in the laboratory frame (275 m s −1 down to 50 m s −1 ) is obtained by use of a Zeeman slower, the counter-propagating laser beam of which is locked in frequency onto the 3 P 2 – 3 D 3 closed transition (λ = 811.5 nm). The accessible centre-of-mass energy range (8–27 meV) has not been explored so far, to our knowledge. Calculations based upon existing interatomic potentials of 2 g and 2 u symmetries are in reasonable agreement with experiment.

Metastable argon atoms Ar*(3P2), produced by electron bombardment of a nozzle beam of ground state Ar atoms, are slowed down from their initial thermal velocity of 560 m/s down to a few tens of m/s, using a standard Zeeman slower. In this decelerator, a repulsive force is induced by a counter-propagating σ+- polarized laser beam, locked in frequency on the3P2-3D3closed transition (λ= 811.5 nm) and then detuned by 340 MHz. A special profile of longitudinal magnetic field is adjusted in order to maintain atoms in resonance with light all over the device, by compensating the variable Doppler shift by the convenient Zeeman shift. Low velocities, e.g. 55 m/s, are accessible but due to spontaneous emission randomly distributed recoil momentums enlarge both angular and velocity distributions of the beam. Nevertheless, by placing off axis collimating slits and grating, it is in principle possible to observe transmission and/or diffraction phenomena specific of low velocities.

Rare-gas atoms are diffracted from nanostructured silicon nitride transmission gratings. From the relative intensities of the diffraction maxima the strength of the van der Waals potential between the atoms and the grating bars is inferred. The method is set out theoretically and is validated with the help of several sets of experimental data. The atom-surface potential of metastable helium and -neon is accurately measured for the first time. The atom-optical method is shown to bear a high potential for new versatile and even more accurate measurements of atom-surface potentials.