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Specular reflection of ultracold atoms from microfabricated magnetic mirrors

A. I. Sidorov, McLean, Russell J., David S. Gough, Sexton, B. A., Timothy J. Davis, Peter Hannaford, A. M. Akulshin, Opat, G. I.

Published Jan 1, 2000• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We report on the observation of highquality reflection of ultracold atoms from grooved perpendicular magnetic media with micronscale periodicities. The novel magnetic mirrors provide a very strong reflection with a small diffusive component that is introduced by the roughness of the reflecting potential. During reflection the atomic cloud obtains an rms angular spread of (8 + 10) mrad that corresponds to 3 photon recoils.

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•May 1, 1997•3 citations
We report on the observation of highquality reflection of ultracold atoms from grooved perpendicular magnetic media with micronscale periodicities. The novel magnetic mirrors provide a very strong reflection with a small diffusive component that is introduced by the roughness of the reflecting potential. During reflection the atomic cloud obtains an rms angular spread of (8 + 10) mrad that corresponds to 3 photon recoils.
We describe the use of permanent magnetic microstructures based on grooved, perpendicularly magnetised thin films fabricated by electron-beam lithography as optical elements for atom optics. Strong reflection signals and predominantly specular reflection have been realised for beams of cold caesium or rubidium atoms normally incident on grooved perpendicularly magnetised microstructures with periodicities of 1--4 \\mu m. We discuss the use of perpendicularly magnetised microstructures to construct miniature integrated atom optical elements, including magnetic waveguides, microtraps and beamsplitters, for manipulating atomic de Broglie waves on the surface of a substrate.
We report the reflection and focusing of a Bose-Einstein condensate by a pulsed magnetic mirror. The mirror is adaptive, inelastic, and has extremely high optical quality. Deviations from specularity are below 1 mrad rms --- almost an order of magnitude better than other atomic mirrors. The mirror has been used to realize the atom-optical analog of a beam expander, producing an ultracold collimated fountain of matter waves. The results of these experiments are in good agreement with simple theoretical models.
In a recent experiment we studied cold rubidium atoms bouncing on a magnetic mirror made from a flexible computer disk with sinusoidal magnetization. The motion was well described by a model in which the mirror was a perfect specular reflector, but complete agreement with the data required the reflecting surface to be slightly corrugated. Here we explore the physical origins of the corrugation both theoretically and experimentally. First, we develop a theory relating the reflecting force on the atoms to the magnetization of the mirror, taking into account the finite thickness of the magnetic film. We find that if the signal on the floppy disk is not harmonic the atoms appear to have been reflected from a corrugated surface, as observed in our recent experiment. Next, we describe magnetic force microscope measurements which allow us to determine the distortion on the disk and hence to quantify its effect on the reflected atoms. We show that recording nonlinearity is indeed a major cause of the mirror roughness. We also consider other sources of roughness and identify an important effect associated with the boundaries between recorded tracks. Agreement between our experiment and theory suggests that we have identified the limiting factors in a real atom-optical element made from a floppy disk. At present the angular resolution of the mirror is approximately 35 mrad for atoms dropped from a height of 4 cm. We discuss how this can be improved to reach a level of 5 mrad or better.
We report on an experimental study of the dynamics of the reflection of ultracold atoms from a periodic one-dimensional magnetic lattice potential. The magnetic lattice potential of period $10\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\text{m}$ is generated by applying a uniform bias magnetic field to a microfabricated periodic structure on a silicon wafer coated with a multilayered TbGdFeCo/Cr magneto-optical film. The effective thickness of the magnetic film is about 960 nm. A detailed study of the profile of the reflected atoms as a function of externally induced periodic corrugation in the potential is described. The effect of angle of incidence is investigated in detail. The experimental observations are supported by numerical simulations.
We report recent progress on the development of magnetic mirrors for reflecting beams of slowly moving neutral atoms. Different approaches for constructing periodic magnetic structures with micron-scale periodicities are described, including the use of arrays of current-carrying wires fabricated by photolithography, grooved ferromagnetic structures fabricated by electron-beam lithography, and magnetic structures recorded on magneto-optical film by a focused diode laser beam. Results on the reflection of free-falling laser-cooled caesium atoms from these microfabricated magnetic mirrors are presented.
Multiple bounces of cold rubidium atoms have been observed for times up to one second in a trap formed by gravity and a 2 cm-diameter spherical mirror made from a sinusoidally magnetized floppy disk. We have studied the dynamics of the atoms bouncing in this trap from several different heights up to 40.5 mm and we conclude that the atoms are reflected specularly and with reflectivity 1.01(3). Slight roughness of the mirror is caused by harmonics in the magnetization of the surface and by discontinuities at the boundaries between recorded tracks. As the next step in this atom optics program we propose using a magnetic mirror to create a 2D atomic gas. We discuss how cold atoms can be loaded into the ground state of a static magnetic potential well that exists above the surface of the mirror as a consequence of the intermediate-field Zeeman effect.