Light Forces and Atom Diffraction — An Illustrated Summary

David E. Pritchard

Tim Byrnes, Ebubechukwu O. Ilo-Okeke

This chapter discusses the basic physics of atom diffraction. Starting with a short review on the diffraction of light, we describe the absorption of photons by an atom and its subsequent emission, where the atom to changes its momentum and internal state. Assuming a two-level atom, we describe the coherent interactions of atoms with light, showing its effect on the ground state of the atoms. We further illustrate how the light impacts forces on the atom that can be used for trapping it in the light field. Next, we discuss Bragg diffraction of atoms, where the internal state of an atom is unchanged after diffraction. Here the external motional state of the atom is put in a linear superposition of its movement. Finally, we describe the diffraction of atoms by Raman pulses, where the internal state of the atom is changed after diffraction, while achieving directed motion.

Hajime Ito, Akifumi Takamizawa, H. Tanioka +2 more

Summary form only given. The conventional atom-manipulation techniques with propagating light are limited in spatial accuracy by diffraction effects of light waves. In order to overcome the diffraction limit and increase the manipulation accuracy, we can use the optical near field localized in a nanometer region. Such an optical near field is produced by a fiber probe with a nanometric aperture. We consider manipulating atoms by means of the dipole force from the localized optical near field. In this paper we report on the experimental progress toward the realization of atom manipulation with the nanometric fiber probe.

Pierre Meystre

Jochen Arlt, C. A. McQueen, Kishan Dholakia

Summary form only given. Recent advances in cold atom physics have seen the emergence of the area of atom guiding along hollow core optical fibres and also along light beams. Both employ the optical dipole force which for suitably tuned light can restrict the atoms to the dark hollow region of the fibre or the light beam. In this work, we discuss and analyse a novel scheme of channelling cold atoms into a high-order Bessel beam (via a high-order Laguerre-Gaussian beam) and demonstrate an efficient method of producing such beams.

P. L. Gould