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Chinese Physics Letters

Cold Atom Cloud with High Optical Depth Measured with Large Duty Cycle

Jun Zhang, Zhen-Jie Gu, Peng Qian, Zhi-Guang Han, J. F. Chen

Published Jun 1, 2015• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a cold atom system with a dark-line two-dimensional magneto-optical trap, to increase the atomic density by suppressing the atomic radiation pressure. Optical depth (OD) and duty cycle are used to evaluate the system performance. We demonstrate a 100% increase in OD with the dark line, and obtain an ultrahigh OD of 264 with 10% for the duty cycle. Also, with an efficient dark line region, the OD could maintain above 100 with duty cycle as high as 30%. The cold atomic ensemble with an ultrahigh OD with a 10%–30% duty cycle is particularly advantageous in quantum information processing and communication.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/32/6/064211

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Quantum memories for light lie at the heart of long-distance provably-secure communication. Demand for a functioning quantum memory, with high efficiency and coherence times approaching a millisecond, is therefore at a premium. Here we report on work towards this goal, with the development of a 87 Rb magneto-optical trap with a peak optical depth of 1000 for the D2 F = 2 → F ' = 3 transition using spatial and temporal dark spots. With this purpose-built cold atomic ensemble we implemented the gradient echo memory (GEM) scheme on the D1 line. Our data shows a memory efficiency of 80 ± 2% and coherence times up to 195 μ s.
We demonstrate a simple method to increase the optical density (OD) of cold atom clouds produced by a magneto-optical trap (MOT). A pair of rectangular anti-Helmholtz coils is used in the MOT to generate the magnetic field that produces the cigar-shaped atom cloud. With 7.2x10(8) (87)Rb atoms in the cigar-type MOT, we achieve an OD of 32 as determined by the slow light measurement and this OD is large enough such that the atom cloud can almost contain the entire Gaussian light pulse. Compared to the conventional MOT under the same trapping conditions, the OD is increased by about 2.7 folds by this simple method. In another MOT setup of the cigar-shaped Cs atom cloud, we achieve an OD of 105 as determined by the absorption spectrum of the |6S(1/2),F = 4>-->/6P(3/2),F' = 5> transition.