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Towards atomic physics using spatially structured light

Jason Webster

Published Dec 1, 2018• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Structured light has seen many applications in the fields of telecommunications, optical microscopy, and quantum information processing, however, few works exist that explore the interactions of structured light with atoms. In this thesis, we seek to explore these interactions further, both theoretically and experimentally. Of particular interest is the interaction between an atom and a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1. Such a beam is easily constructed in a lab setting, and also carries an additional unit of orbital angular momentum that has been shown to couple with atomic transitions. Theoretically, we derive a framework upon which to describe atomic transitions due structured light. We find that tailoring light’s structure will have a direct influence on the strength of quadrupole transitions in atoms. A theoretical analysis of the effects of an atom situated in a magnetic field interacting with a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1 was conducted. It was found that atoms placed in a region of zero intensity, such as the beam centre, can undergo quadrupole transitions – in contrast to dipole transitions that rely on the field intensity. We go on to show the differences between this beam and a gaussian beam, and find that the former can cause transitions between magnetic sub-levels that are typically considered forbidden in quadrupole spectroscopy under certain conditions. We explain this through the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Experimentally, we chose to use a potassium vapour cell as our medium, as the linewidth of its quadrupole transition was relatively large, and could be simply modelled as a three-level system to easily understand its dynamics. We performed an experiment where we indirectly measured a 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj quadrupole transition for j = 3/2, 5/2, induced by a custom-built external cavity diode laser operating at ∼ 464.3 nm. The 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj transition was measured by monitoring the fluorescence due to a dipole decay 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 during the decay cascade from 3 2Dj → 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 , where j 0 = 1/2, 3/2. We then used our theoretical framework to fit the sum of two gaussian peaks to our measured fluorescence spectrum, and find an excellent agreement with our data.

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ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Structured light has seen many applications in the fields of telecommunications, optical microscopy, and quantum information processing, however, few works exist that explore the interactions of structured light with atoms. In this thesis, we seek to explore these interactions further, both theoretically and experimentally. Of particular interest is the interaction between an atom and a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1. Such a beam is easily constructed in a lab setting, and also carries an additional unit of orbital angular momentum that has been shown to couple with atomic transitions. Theoretically, we derive a framework upon which to describe atomic transitions due structured light. We find that tailoring light’s structure will have a direct influence on the strength of quadrupole transitions in atoms. A theoretical analysis of the effects of an atom situated in a magnetic field interacting with a Laguerre-Gauss beam of topological charge l = 1 was conducted. It was found that atoms placed in a region of zero intensity, such as the beam centre, can undergo quadrupole transitions – in contrast to dipole transitions that rely on the field intensity. We go on to show the differences between this beam and a gaussian beam, and find that the former can cause transitions between magnetic sub-levels that are typically considered forbidden in quadrupole spectroscopy under certain conditions. We explain this through the principle of conservation of angular momentum. Experimentally, we chose to use a potassium vapour cell as our medium, as the linewidth of its quadrupole transition was relatively large, and could be simply modelled as a three-level system to easily understand its dynamics. We performed an experiment where we indirectly measured a 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj quadrupole transition for j = 3/2, 5/2, induced by a custom-built external cavity diode laser operating at ∼ 464.3 nm. The 4 2S1/2 → 3 2Dj transition was measured by monitoring the fluorescence due to a dipole decay 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 during the decay cascade from 3 2Dj → 4 2Pj 0 → 4 2S1/2 , where j 0 = 1/2, 3/2. We then used our theoretical framework to fit the sum of two gaussian peaks to our measured fluorescence spectrum, and find an excellent agreement with our data.
The interaction of atoms and molecules with structured light, specifically laser light endowed with the property of orbital angular momentum, such as Laguerre-Gaussian light, is discussed. The primary effects of interest here are the influence of the light on the gross motion of atoms and molecules and the possibilities this motion provides for particle manipulation in cooling, heating and trapping experiments. It turns out that, in addition to the possibility of modifying translational motion, suitably structured light can facilitate the manipulation of rotational motion. The latter possibility arises from a light-induced torque that is directly attributable to the orbital angular momentum property of the light. We outline the physics responsible for these effects and consider applications to typical cases in which atoms and ions are subject to near resonant Laguerre-Gaussian beams, leading to characteristic trajectories and eventual trapping in specific regions. Details are given for optical molasses configurations based on twisted light beams arranged in one-, two- and three-dimensional counter-propagating pairs. We extend consideration to the case of liquid crystals, subject to Laguerre-Gaussian light tuned far off-resonance, and show how this leads to the twisting of the directors in the liquid crystal, coinciding with the intensity distribution of the light.
In this paper, we explain how a weak optical quadrupole interaction in atoms can be utilized. Our proposed physical model is based on the atom, which interacts at near resonance with laser light prepared as a Bessel mode. This type of beam is a class of light, which possesses a well-defined orbital angular momentum that is distinct from spin angular momentum. This property, in particular, causes optical forces to ensue from such interactions, giving distinctive features. Although the magnitude of the quadrupole interaction in standard situation is small, it plays an important role in some special cases, such as those allowing processes involving dipole-forbidden transitions or in the presence of external fields. We describe the essential features of the optical-force effects and discuss how they can, in principle, be used to influence atoms.
Abstract We study high-resolution atomic localization in a multilevel atomic system driven simultaneously by a Gaussian and a Laguerre–Gaussian (LG) beam. The coexistence of the two fields creates a hybrid coupling landscape in which the Gaussian beam supplies radial confinement, while the LG beam contributes an orbital angular momentum (OAM)-dependent azimuthal modulation. By solving the steady-state density-matrix equations, we show that the resulting localization patterns contain mixed spatial harmonics whose structure is set by the topological charge, beam waist, and probe detuning. The OAM index determines the angular symmetry of the localized absorption features, whereas the beam waist controls their radial extent. Probe detuning provides an additional tuning mechanism that alters the contrast and geometry of the localization regions. These results highlight how structured light fields can be used to engineer controllable spatial localization in atomic media, with relevance to precision metrology, spatially resolved quantum control, and structured-light sensing.
Photons carry one unit of angular momentum associated with their spin~\cite{Beth1936}. Structured vortex beams carry additional orbital angular momentum which can also be transferred to matter~\cite{Allen1992}. This extra twist has been used for example to drive motion of microscopic particles in optical tweezers as well as to create vortices in degenerate quantum gases~\cite{He1995,Andersen2006}. Here we demonstrate the transfer of optical orbital angular momentum from the transverse spatial structure of the beam to the internal (electronic) degrees of freedom of an atom. Probing a quadrupole transition of a single trapped 40^{40}40Ca+^++ ion localized at the center of the vortex, we observe strongly modified selection rules, accounting for both the photon spin and the vorticity of the field. In particular, we show that an atom can absorb two quanta of angular momentum from a single photon even when rotational symmetry is conserved. In contrast to previous findings~\cite{Araoka2005,Loeffler2011a,Mathevet2013}, our experiment allows for conditions where the vorticity of the laser beam determines the optical excitation, contributing to the long-standing discussion on whether the orbital angular momentum of photons can be transferred to atomic internal degrees of freedom~\cite{VanEnk1994,Babiker2002,Jauregui2004, Schmiegelow2012, Mondal2014, Scholz-Marggraf2014} and paves the way for its use to tailor light-matter interactions.
Recently it has been shown that the quadrupole interactions can be improved significantly as the atom interacts at near resonance with the Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) mode. In this paper, we illustrate that other kinds of optical vortex can be also led to a considerable enhancement of quadrupole interaction when the atom interacts with optical modes at near resonance. The calculations are performed on an interesting situation with Cs atom, where the process is concerned with dipole-forbidden and quadrupole-allowed transitions with a convenable choice of atomic and optical mode parameters. In this direction, we show that the quadrupole transitions can be significantly enhanced and therefore they can play an interesting role and lead to new features of atom-light interaction, which can have some constructive implications in experiments.
This study presents an innovative scheme for detecting the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of vortex beams within an atomic ensemble. Leveraging a homogeneously broadened four-level atomic system driven by two orthogonal polarization probe beams, we demonstrate the selective generation of structured beams without the need for magnetic fields between the two ground states. Through detailed theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we elucidate the phase-dependent behavior of atomic coherences induced by an OAM-carrying Laguerre–Gaussian optical probe beam. These findings enable the creation of petal-like structures within the probe beam, with the number of petals directly correlated to the OAM value. Our investigation underscores the potential of this OAM detection scheme as a highly sensitive and precise sensor, applicable across diverse domains such as telecommunication, microscopy, and optical metrology.