Three-Dimensional Imaging of Cold Atoms in a Magneto-Optical Trap with a Light Field Microscope

Dan Mohr, Jay Brooks, Dan Klemme +2 more

Eve Aucouturier

A continuous beam of cold atoms is considered as an alternative to improve the performance of caesium frequency standards. A two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) is outlined. The assembling of three counter-propagating circularly polarised laser beams and of two magnetic field gradients along the horizontal axes leads to a transverse cooling and trapping, whereas in the vertical z-direction the atoms are only cooled and not trapped because of the zero magnetic field in this direction. In order to predict the characteristics of the beam of cold atoms, a simulation of the atomic trajectories was carried out by using a two-dimensional model of Doppler cooling and magneto-optical trapping. The velocity distribution of the atoms, which, due to the trapping and cooling process, enter the zone, where they are launched, is calculated.

A. Grabowski, Tilman Pfau

Bei Liu, Junmin Wang, Wen-Ting Diao +3 more

Based on feedback control techniques and our realization of nearly complete transferring cold cesium (Cs) atoms from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) to a far-off-resonance microscopic optical tweezer, we investigated the possibility for nearly deterministic loading of a single Cs atom in a MOT and in a microscopic optical tweezer. We combined feedback controls on the gradient of the MOT quadrupole magnetic field (QMF) and on blue-detuned light-assisted collisions (LAC) of confined cold atoms in the tweezer. Using active feedback on QMF of the MOT, we have achieved ~ 98% of probability of single atom loading in a MOT. In a microscopic optical tweezer, by combining the feedback controls on the QMF and the LAC, we finally achieved ~ 95.2% of probability of single atom loading in the tweezer. This two-path feedback control scheme may be extended to load a small-size 2D tweezer array with exact single atom trapped in each site simultaneously. This is very important and promising to implement an addressable multiple-qubit system for demonstrating quantum register and quantum processor.

M. L. Miguez, Ph. W. Courteille

Timothy M. James

Ultra-cold atoms have small kinetic energy and are therefore very sensitive to external fields that act on the atoms. By having fine control over the positioning of the ultra-cold atom cloud we can use the atom cloud as a sensor for magnetic fields. By imaging these atom clouds we can infer a spatial map of the magnetic field. This spatial map will have a resolution proportional to the distance between the source of the magnetic field and the atom cloud which can be on the order of 0:1 µm. In the first half of the thesis, we investigate the two colour magneto-optical trap. This is a simple technique that can lead to a multiplicative increase in the number of atoms in a magneto-optical trap with a simple change to the optical setup. Using the two colour magneto-optical trap we have observed an increase of 5 times in the number of trapped atoms. An increase in the number of atoms in a magneto-optical helps with later cooling processes that are not lossless such as evaporative cooling which in turn helps the realisation of the ultra-cold atom microscope. In the second half of the thesis, we demonstrate how a 2d current density can be recovered from a 2d magnetic field map generated by the ultra-cold atom microscope. We then go on to show the sensitivity and responsivity of a cold atom cloud and a Bose-Einstein condensate. We then use the results of the previous section to simulate the measurement of currents in a silver nanowire network. Properties of the silver nanowire network can be simulated and aid in showing the abilities and limitations of the ultra-cold atom microscope. We found that the ultra-cold atom microscope can directly measure currents in low-density silver nanowire networks. In a high-density silver nanowire network, the average distance between the wires becomes too small to resolve. Hot-spots, areas of high current density can still be identified using the ultra-cold atom microscope. The ultracold atom microscope could then be used as a tool to aid the research look to use silver nanowires in many industrial applications such as touch screens.