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Optics Express

Three-dimensional cooling of a single atom by a pair of counter-propagating tightly focused beams

Gang Li, Pengfei Zhang, Tiancai Zhang

Published Aug 31, 2015• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A light beam tightly focused by a high numerical-aperture lens system contains longitudinal components with polarization parallel to the propagation axis. By numerically analyzing the polarization distribution around the focal region in one pair of confocally aligned counter-propagating tightly focused light beams with orthogonal linear polarizations, we found that there exists a three-dimensional polarization gradient pattern similar to that used in cooling neutral atoms. This can be used to three-dimensionally cool atoms trapped in a far-off-resonant trap with only one pair of counter-propagating beams in one dimension. This new cooling scheme can be used to individually cool single atoms in an addressable two-dimensional single-atom array for quantum information processing and be applied to perform readouts of qubit encoded in these atoms without losing them.

DOI
10.1364/oe.23.023571

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A light beam tightly focused by a high numerical-aperture lens system contains longitudinal components with polarization parallel to the propagation axis. By numerically analyzing the polarization distribution around the focal region in one pair of confocally aligned counter-propagating tightly focused light beams with orthogonal linear polarizations, we found that there exists a three-dimensional polarization gradient pattern similar to that used in cooling neutral atoms. This can be used to three-dimensionally cool atoms trapped in a far-off-resonant trap with only one pair of counter-propagating beams in one dimension. This new cooling scheme can be used to individually cool single atoms in an addressable two-dimensional single-atom array for quantum information processing and be applied to perform readouts of qubit encoded in these atoms without losing them.
In a one-dimensional polarization-gradient cooling scheme, with two counter-propagating laser beams having mutually orthogonal linear polarization, a linear array of potential wells for cold atoms are formed. These optical potential wells are created by the spatially varying light shift of the atomic ground state. Transitions between quantized vibrational states in such wells have been observed by stimulated1 and spontaneous2 Raman spectroscopy. Recently, this was extended to three dimensions using both four beams3 and six beams.4 In this work, we intersect four travelling-wave laser beams, all polarized in the same plane, as indicated in Fig. 1. This produces a threedimensional body-centered cubic lattice of potential wells for cesium atoms. The laser wavelength is tuned 25 linewidths below the 62S1/2(F = 4) → 62P3/2(F = 5) transition at 852 nm; and the resultant lattice constants (distances between wells of the same character) are λ / 2 perpendicular to the plane of polarization, and λ × 2 in the plane of polarization.
We demonstrate the possibility of three-dimensional cooling of neutral atoms by illuminating them with two counterpropagating laser beams of mutually orthogonal linear polarization, where one of the lasers is a speckle field, i.e., a highly disordered but stationary coherent light field. This configuration gives rise to atom cooling in the transverse plane via a Sisyphus cooling mechanism similar to the one known in standard two-dimensional optical lattices formed by several plane laser waves. However, striking differences occur in the spatial diffusion coefficients as well as in local properties of the trapped atoms.
We demonstrate the possibility of three-dimensional cooling of neutral atoms by illuminating them with two counterpropagating laser beams of mutually orthogonal linear polarization, where one of the lasers is a speckle field, i.e., a highly disordered but stationary coherent light field. This configuration gives rise to atom cooling in the transverse plane via a Sisyphus cooling mechanism similar to the one known in standard two-dimensional optical lattices formed by several plane laser waves. However, striking differences occur in the spatial diffusion coefficients as well as in local properties of the trapped atoms.
Single atoms are promising candidates for physically implementing quantum bits, the fundamental unit of quantum information. We have built an apparatus for cooling, trapping and imaging single rubidium atoms in microscopic optical tweezers. The traps are formed from a tightly focused off-resonant laser beam, which traps atoms using the optical dipole force. The traps have a diameter of ~1 μm and a depth of ~1 mK. The novelty of our approach is the use a digital mirror device (DMD) to generate multiple independently movable tweezers from a single laser beam. The DMD consists of an array of micro-mirrors that can be switched on and off, thus acting as a binary amplitude modulator. We use the DMD to imprint a computer-generated hologram on the laser beam, which is converted in to the desired arrangement of traps in the focal plane of a lens. We have developed fast algorithms for calculating binary holograms suitable for the DMD. In addition, we use this method to measure and correct for errors in the phase of the wavefront caused by optical aberrations, which is necessary for producing diffraction-limited focal spots. Using this apparatus, we have trapped arrays of up to 20 atoms with arbitrary geometrical arrangements. We exploit light-assisted collisions between atoms to ensure there is at most one atom per trapping site. We measure the temperature of the atoms in the traps to be 12 μK, and their lifetime to be 1.4 s. Finally, we demonstrate the ability to select individual atoms from an array and transport them over a distance of 14μm with laser cooling, and 5 μm without.
We report cooling of a single neutral atom to its three-dimensional vibrational ground state in an optical tweezer.After employing Raman sideband cooling for tens of milliseconds, we measure via sideband spectroscopy a three-dimensional ground-state occupation of about 90%.We further observe coherent control of the spin and motional state of the trapped atom.Our demonstration shows that an optical tweezer, formed simply by a tightly focused beam of light, creates sufficient confinement for efficient sideband cooling.This source of ground-state neutral atoms will be instrumental in numerous quantum simulation and logic applications that require a versatile platform for storing and manipulating ultracold single neutral atoms.For example, these results will improve current optical-tweezer experiments studying atom-photon coupling and Rydberg quantum logic gates, and could provide new opportunities such as rapid production of single dipolar molecules or quantum simulation in tweezer arrays.
It has been shown that the field of counter-propagating bichromatic light waves can form a one-dimension trap for atoms. The confinement of an ensemble of atoms in the trap and their simultaneous cooling to a temperature close to the Doppler cooling limit can be achieved without using auxiliary fields, by properly choosing the detuning of monochromatic components from the atomic transition frequency. The specific numerical simulation is carried out for sodium atoms. A possible application of such a trap for the confinement and the cooling of molecules with an almost diagonal array of Franck–Condon factors is discussed.