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Optical and magnetic properties of a transparent garnet film for atomic physics experiments

Mari M. Saito, Ryoichi Tajima, Ryota Kiyosawa, Y. Nagata, Hiroyuki Shimada, Takayuki Ishibashi, A. Hatakeyama

Published Dec 1, 2016• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigated the optical and magnetic properties of a transparent magnetic garnet with a particular focus on its applications to atomic physics experiments. The garnet film used in this study was a magnetically soft material that was originally designed for a Faraday rotator at optical communication wavelengths in the near infrared region. The film had a thickness of 2.1 μm and a small optical loss at a wavelength of λ=780 nm resonant with Rb atoms. The Faraday effect was also small and, thus, barely affected the polarization of light at λ=780 nm. In contrast, large Faraday rotation angles at shorter wavelengths enabled us to visualize magnetic domains, which were perpendicularly magnetized in alternate directions with a period of 3.6 μm. We confirmed the generation of an evanescent wave on the garnet film, which can be used for the optical observation and manipulation of atoms on the surface of the film. Finally, we demonstrated a magnetic mirror for laser-cooled Rb atoms using the garnet film.

DOI
10.1063/1.4972125

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•Jan 1, 2004•1 citation
We investigated the optical and magnetic properties of a transparent magnetic garnet with a particular focus on its applications to atomic physics experiments. The garnet film used in this study was a magnetically soft material that was originally designed for a Faraday rotator at optical communication wavelengths in the near infrared region. The film had a thickness of 2.1 μm and a small optical loss at a wavelength of λ=780 nm resonant with Rb atoms. The Faraday effect was also small and, thus, barely affected the polarization of light at λ=780 nm. In contrast, large Faraday rotation angles at shorter wavelengths enabled us to visualize magnetic domains, which were perpendicularly magnetized in alternate directions with a period of 3.6 μm. We confirmed the generation of an evanescent wave on the garnet film, which can be used for the optical observation and manipulation of atoms on the surface of the film. Finally, we demonstrated a magnetic mirror for laser-cooled Rb atoms using the garnet film.
We proposed an all-optical bistable unit made of a Faraday medium and investigated theoretically its unique characteristics. Optical bistability in our proposed unit was experimantally confirmed. In this paper, using a 830 nm wavelength laser diode and a thin garnet film rotator as a Fabry-Perot resonator, optical bistability is confirmed again. Bistable characteristics, threshold incident power, on-off power ratio, and dynamic characteristics, are examined to attain controllability with the external magnetic field. In our proposed unit's construction, an all-optical sensing device (a magnetic field sensor) is proposed and evaluated for application to the OB operation.
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Abstract A dense system of independent oscillators, connected only by their interaction with the same cavity excitation mode, will radiate coherently, which effect is termed superradiance. In several cases, especially if the density of oscillators is high, the superradiant decay of the oscillators’ excited state may dominate the intrinsic relaxation processes. At low frequencies, this limit can be achieved with cyclotron resonance in two-dimensional electron gases. In those experiments, the cyclotron resonance is coupled to the electric field of light, while the oscillator density can be easily controlled by varying the gate voltage. However, in the case of magnetic oscillators, to achieve the dominance of superradiance is more tricky, as material parameters limit the oscillator density, and the magnetic coupling to the light wave is rather weak. Here we present quasi-optical magnetic resonance experiments on thin films of yttrium iron garnet. Due to the simplicity of experimental geometry, the intrinsic damping and the contribution of superradiance can be easily separated in the transmission spectra. We show that with increasing film thickness, the losses due to coherent radiation prevail the system’s internal broadening.
This paper reports the development and characterization of an atomic magnetometer with a microfabricatedRb atomic vapour cell as the sensing element. The measurement principle is based on the Faraday rotation of linearly polarized probe light, which interacts resonantly with atomic spin states in the presence of a magnetic field. In the chip-scale vapour cell (dimensions: 8.0 mm × 12.0 mm × 1.5 mm), the atomic vapour is confined to a micromachined optical cavity of 3.5 µL with an optical path length of 0.5 mm. Optical interrogation is performed using a single laser beam tuned to the D1 absorption resonance of ⁸⁵Rb. The rotation arises due to magnetically induced circular birefringence in the hot atomic vapour. A bench model of the magnetometer is demonstrated over a measurement range of ±50 µT with a maximum uncertainty of 800 nT in an unshielded environment. The magneto-optic rotation (MOR) response in the laboratory was investigated and is observed to vary from 5×10³ rad/T for near zero magnetic field to 3.2×10³ rad/T for ambient geomagnetic field.
An experiment on nonlinear laser spectroscopy and magneto-optics at the Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory at Berkeley is described. The experiment consists of three parts. In the first part, students learn to operate a diode laser system and characterize its performance using a Fabry–Perot spectrum analyzer. In the second part, Doppler-broadened laser-induced fluorescence and Doppler-free saturated absorption spectra of the rubidium D2 line (780 nm) are recorded and analyzed. Finally, in the third part of the experiment, which we describe in greater detail, the near-resonant magneto-optical rotation is investigated. Nonlinear light-atom interaction leads to spectacular manifestations of the resonant Faraday effect—polarization plane rotation in a magnetic field applied along the direction of light propagation radically different from the linear case. In particular, narrow (∼30 Hz) effective line widths are observed in this experiment corresponding to a rotation enhancement by some seven orders of magnitude compared to the linear Faraday rotation.
Laser cooling methods provide the possibility to obtain very well collimated and slow atomic beams. These intense sources have attracted new interest in the manipulation of atomic trajectories. Atom optical schemes based on the optical dipole force are very attractive, for example in atom lithography where atomic beams are focused by standing wave light elds, to create periodic nanostructures. However, in applications where more complex structures are desirable or decoherence due to spontaneous emission has to be avoided, magnetic atom optical components are more attractive. For example, at and curved atomic mirrors with high reflectivity and low surface rough ness can be built from periodically magnetized videotapes. First, with a collimated and polarized cesium atomic beam from a Zeeman-slower apparatus, we have investigated the deflection of the atomic beam by a sinusoidally magnetized videotape with a period length of 30 μm. From these measurements we have determined the magnetic eld strength at the surface to be 0.05 Tesla. The reflectivity has been found to be consistent with 100%. The very large eld gradients produced by the tape can be exploited to guide atoms on curved trajectories with small radii of curvature. With a radius of 9.5 cm we have obtained a maximum deflection angle of 25° which is limited by technical constraint. Second, we have built a setup based on a 2D-MOT for generating a slow atomic beam with a velocity of 20 m/s. After leaving the optical collimation and the optical polarization stages, the atomic beam is reflected after one bounce onto the videotape up to angles as large as 7°. We exploited the natural curvature of our videotape and we demonstrated the focusing of the atomic beam after one and two bounces depending on the curvature of the videotape. The focal length and the angles of deflection enable to deduce the local radii of curvature. We have confronted our results by testing the focusing of the videotape with a red laser and by performing a numerical simulation which prove the consistency with the atomic beam experiments.