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Atoms for Logic

R. J. Knize

Published Dec 13, 1997• 0 citations

Abstract

Abstract : This project examined the use of atomic vapors in an optical correlator for pattern recognition. The nonlinear optics of very thin atomic vapors was studied. This work allowed the demonstration of an optical correlator in a thin cesium vapor. This correlator was able to compare patterns of letters as well as random patterns. The patterns can contain up to 10 to the 5th power pixel/cm2 and the correlation is obtained in 10 microseconds. In addition, methods to improve the performance of the optical correlator were investigated. Experiments showed that motion of the atoms during the excited state lifetime of 30 nsec limited the smallest pixel size to about 30 microns. Two methods that were investigated to improve this resolution were the use of buffer gasses to confine the atoms and laser cooling the atoms to reduce their speed. One set of experiments showed that buffer gasses can either quench the excited state lifetime or limited diffusion of the excited state atoms. Another set of experiments began investigation of laser cooling techniques to slow the atomic motion.

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Recently, great progress has been made in the cooling and trapping of atoms. It is now possible to create a collection of atoms with a number density in excess of 1011cm-3 and a kinetic temperature of the order of 10 μK. At such low temperatures the mean atomic velocity is of the order of 10cm/sec and the resulting Doppler width of the atomic transition is much lower than the homogeneous width. Furthermore, it has been shown that a substantial fraction of the atoms are localized inside wavelength-scale potential wells due to light-shifts[1]. Such a collection of essentially stationary atoms provide a reasonably large nonlinear susceptibility that can be exploited for the study of various nonlinear optical interactions [2].

Nonlinear Optics•Jan 1, 1992•0 citations

Abstract : This project examined the use of atomic vapors in an optical correlator for pattern recognition. The nonlinear optics of very thin atomic vapors was studied. This work allowed the demonstration of an optical correlator in a thin cesium vapor. This correlator was able to compare patterns of letters as well as random patterns. The patterns can contain up to 10 to the 5th power pixel/cm2 and the correlation is obtained in 10 microseconds. In addition, methods to improve the performance of the optical correlator were investigated. Experiments showed that motion of the atoms during the excited state lifetime of 30 nsec limited the smallest pixel size to about 30 microns. Two methods that were investigated to improve this resolution were the use of buffer gasses to confine the atoms and laser cooling the atoms to reduce their speed. One set of experiments showed that buffer gasses can either quench the excited state lifetime or limited diffusion of the excited state atoms. Another set of experiments began investigation of laser cooling techniques to slow the atomic motion.

We obtain the correlation pattern between two amplitude-modulated input images of 36 and 280 random black and white pixels, using the standard degenerate four-wave-mixing geometry of 852-nm optical beams in a 1-mm-thick cesium-vapor cell. The total optical input power is 3.2 mW to obtain 0.4 nW of power in the correlation pattern. We verified that the buildup time of the four-wave-mixing signal is ~30 ns. Using the random patterns, we analyze the performance of the cesium optical correlator in terms of the number of pixels that can be processed and the number of photons per pixel used. We show how to scale our experimental results for the efficiency of the cesium correlator to images containing a larger number of pixels.

Experimental and theoretical studies are presented related to the ground-state magneto-optical resonance observed in cesium vapor confined in an extremely thin cell (ETC), with thickness equal to the wavelength of the irradiating light. It is shown that utilization of the ETC allows one to examine the formation of a magneto-optical resonance on the individual hyperfine transitions, thus distinguishing processes resulting in dark (reduced absorption) or bright (enhanced absorption) resonance formation. We report experimental evidence of bright magneto-optical resonance sign reversal in Cs atoms confined in an ETC. A theoretical model is proposed based on the optical Bloch equations that involves the elastic interaction processes of atoms in the ETC with its walls, resulting in depolarization of the Cs excited state, which is polarized by the exciting radiation. This depolarization leads to the sign reversal of the bright resonance. Using the proposed model, the magneto-optical resonance amplitude and width as a function of laser power are calculated and compared with the experimental ones. The numerical results are in good agreement with those of experiment.

Recently, great progress has been made in the cooling and trapping of atoms. It is now possible to create a collection of atoms with a number density in excess of 1011cm-3 and a kinetic temperature of the order of 10 μK. At such low temperatures the mean atomic velocity is of the order of 10cm/sec and the resulting Doppler width of the atomic transition is much lower than the homogeneous width. Furthermore, it has been shown that a substantial fraction of the atoms are localized inside wavelength-scale potential wells due to light-shifts[1]. Such a collection of essentially stationary atoms provide a reasonably large nonlinear susceptibility that can be exploited for the study of various nonlinear optical interactions [2].