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Physical Review A

Efficient transverse deflection of neutral atomic beams using spontaneous resonance-radiation pressure

John E. Bjorkholm, Richard R. Freeman, D. B. Pearson

Published Feb 1, 1981• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the efficient transverse deflection of all atoms in a well-collimated sodium atomic beam by the spontaneous radiation pressure of a beam of resonance light which illuminates the atomic beam at right angles. Our results are obtained using two cw single-mode dye lasers to excite the two ground-state levels of sodium; this enables all atoms to interact with the light and it also eliminates optical pumping of the ground state. We obtained deflection angles greater than 5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ rad which was ten times the divergence angle of the undeflected atomic beam; these deflections are due to the spontaneous scattering of more than 200 photons by each atom. The distribution of deflection angles is well described by a simple calculation. Fitting theory to experiment indicates that a fractional atomic excitation of 24 percent was obtained at an intensity of approximately 1 W/${\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. When single-frequency light was used, only a fraction of the atoms were deflected, and the deflection angles were much smaller due to optical pumping.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.23.491

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We report the efficient transverse deflection of all atoms in a well-collimated sodium atomic beam by the spontaneous radiation pressure of a beam of resonance light which illuminates the atomic beam at right angles. Our results are obtained using two cw single-mode dye lasers to excite the two ground-state levels of sodium; this enables all atoms to interact with the light and it also eliminates optical pumping of the ground state. We obtained deflection angles greater than 5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}10\ensuremath−3{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}10\ensuremath−3 rad which was ten times the divergence angle of the undeflected atomic beam; these deflections are due to the spontaneous scattering of more than 200 photons by each atom. The distribution of deflection angles is well described by a simple calculation. Fitting theory to experiment indicates that a fractional atomic excitation of 24 percent was obtained at an intensity of approximately 1 W/cm2{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}cm2. When single-frequency light was used, only a fraction of the atoms were deflected, and the deflection angles were much smaller due to optical pumping.
In this paper we report an experimental study on the deflection of a sodium atomic beamby the resonance light pressure of a multi-laser-beam. We have used the multi-laser-beam tointeract with an atomic beam in order to increase the amount of deflection and to reduce con-siderably the need for laser power. A deflection angle of 1.0×10~(-2) rad and the corresponding displacement of 0.72 cm wereobtained. However, only one dye laser was used to illuminate an atomic beam. A method of laser-induced fluorescence of an atomic beam was employed to probe thedeflection of the atomic beam.
We have performed experimental and theoretical studies of the deflection of a sodium atomic beam by a laser tuned to the 3 2{\mathrm{}}^{2}2S1/2{S}_{1/2}S1/2​,F=2--3 2{\mathrm{}}^{2}2P3/2{P}_{3/2}P3/2​,F=3 transition. The intensity profile of the deflected beam was measured at different laser power levels and for different laser polarizations. Calculations using a constant force derived from a two-level atom yield deflections which are too large. The results of more realistic simulation calculations agree very well with the measured deflection. Those calculations incorporate the atomic-beam spatial and velocity distributions as well as the laser frequency distribution and polarization state. Optical pumping, loss of atoms to the nonresonant F=1 ground state, and Doppler shifting of the atoms out of resonance are all considered, as also are the statistics and angular distributions of the spontaneous photons.
In the early 1970s, various researchers showed that the force exerted by light on an atomic beam could deflect the beam. In particular, traveling wave light perpendicular to the beam could be used to impart velocity along the wave vector k of the light.1,2 In these experiments, the angular deflection of an atom depended on the interaction time between the atom and field and thus on the longitudinal velocity of the atoms; consequently, the resulting atomic beam had an increased angular divergence. Other experiments have demonstrated that light could be used to collimate an atomic beam.3 In this experiment we show that a 1-D spontaneous optical molasses nearly perpendicular to an atomic beam can be used to both collimate and angularly deflect an atomic beam, where the deflection is insensitive to longitudinal velocity. In fact, this technique decreases rather than increases the angular divergence of the initial beam. In our experiment we started with a 300°C thermal sodium atomic beam with an angular divergence of ~10 mrad. The light was detuned by Δ ≈ − 20 MHz from the 32S1/2 → 32P3/2 transition in sodium, which corresponds to twice the natural linewidth Γ. Using 1-D molasses formed from counterpropagating light beams of the 1/e waist size of the order of 3 mm, we were able to produce an atomic beam with an ~l-mrad divergence and an angular deflection of >10 mrad. The maximum possible angular deflection θ is of the order.
A method is proposed for generating a near-monoenergetic atomic beam by deflection resulting from the pressure of light of a resonance frequency. A system in which a beam of atoms passes through N periodically distributed regions of interaction with laser radiation is considered: the system ensures a high selectivity in respect of the atomic velocities. The following applications of deflection of monoenergetic atoms are considered: analysis of the velocity distribution in an atomic beam, determination of the lifetime of excited atomic states, and testing of the theory of photon statistics.