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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

One-photon atomic cooling with an optical Maxwell demon valve

A. Ruschhaupt, Juan Gonzalo Muga, Mark G. Raizen

Published Sep 7, 2006• 60 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We discuss the relationship between recent proposals of ‘atom diodes’ or one-way barriers for ultracold atoms and a Maxwell demon valve: in particular the way in which these proposals make use of dissipation via a one-photon spontaneous emission and avoid violation of the second law.
DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/39/18/012

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We implemented an optical one-way potential barrier that allows ultracold 87Rb^{87}\text{R}\text{b}87Rb atoms to transmit through when incident on one side of the barrier but reflect from the other. This asymmetric barrier is a realization of Maxwell's demon, which can be employed to produce phase-space compression and has implications for cooling atoms and molecules not amenable to standard laser-cooling techniques. The barrier comprises two focused Gaussian laser beams that intersect the focus of a far-off-resonant single-beam optical dipole trap that holds the atoms. The main barrier beam presents a state-dependent potential to incident atoms, while the repumping barrier beam optically pumps atoms to a trapped state. We investigated the robustness of the barrier asymmetry to changes in the barrier-beam separation, the initial atomic potential energy, the intensity of the second beam, and the detuning of the first beam. We performed simulations of the atomic dynamics in the presence of the barrier, showing that the initial three-dimensional momentum distribution plays a significant role, and that light-assisted collisions are likely the dominant loss mechanism. We also carefully examined the relationship to Maxwell's demon and explicitly accounted for the apparent decrease in entropy for our particular system.
We demonstrate an asymmetric optical potential barrier for ultracold 87Rb atoms using laser light tuned near the D2 optical transition. Such a one-way barrier, where atoms incident on one side are transmitted but reflected from the other, is a realization of Maxwell's demon and has important implications for cooling atoms and molecules not amenable to standard laser-cooling techniques. In our experiment, atoms are confined to a far-detuned dipole trap consisting of a single focused Gaussian beam, which is divided near the focus by the barrier. The one-way barrier consists of two focused laser beams oriented almost normal to the dipole-trap axis. The first beam is tuned to present either a potential well or barrier, depending on the state of the incident atoms. On the reflecting side of the barrier, the second beam optically pumps the atoms to the reflecting (barrier) state, thus producing the asymmetry.
We demonstrate a general and efficient informational cooling technique for atoms that is an experimental realization of a one-dimensional Maxwell's demon. The technique transfers atoms from a magnetic trap into an optical trap via a single spontaneous Raman transition that is discriminatively driven near each atom's classical turning point. In this way, nearly all of the atomic ensemble's kinetic energy in one dimension is removed. We develop a simple analytical model to predict the efficiency of transfer between the traps and provide evidence that the performance is limited only by particle dynamics in the magnetic trap. Transfer efficiencies up to 2.2% are reported. We show that efficiency can be traded for phase-space compression, and we report compression up to a factor of 350. Our results represent a 15-fold improvement over our previous demonstration of the cooling technique.
Different laser devices working as ``atom diodes'' or ``one-way barriers'' for ultra-cold atoms have been proposed recently. They transmit ground state level atoms coming from one side, say from the left, but reflect them when they come from the other side. We combine a previous model, consisting of the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) from the ground to an excited state and a state-selective mirror potential, with a localized quenching laser which produces spontaneous decay back to the ground state. This avoids backwards motion, provides more control of the decay process and therefore a more compact and useful device.