Demonstration of dense mesoscopic atomic samples in a holographic atom trap

Raymond Newell

Dmitriy V. Kupriyanov, Igor M. Sokolov, Mark D. Havey

Jennifer Sebby-Strabley, Raymond Newell, J. O. Day +2 more

We demonstrate the production of micron-sized high-density atom clouds of interest for mesoscopic quantum information processing. We evaporate atoms from $60\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$, $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{14}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{atoms}∕{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}$ samples contained in a highly anisotropic optical lattice formed by interfering diffracted beams from a holographic phase plate. After evaporating to $1\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ by lowering the confining potential, in less than a second the atom density reduces to $8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{13}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at a phase space density approaching unity. Adiabatic recompression of the atoms then increases the density to levels in excess of $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{15}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The resulting clouds are typically $8\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$ in the longest dimension. Such samples are small enough to enable mesoscopic quantum manipulation using the Rydberg blockade and have the high densities required to investigate collision phenomena.

Herbert Crepaz, Marcin Kubasik, Marco Koschorreck +2 more

In this paper trap-state spectroscopy on dense, cold optically trapped, micron sized atom clouds is performed and compared the results with model calculations based on a non-interacting, thermal Bose-gas confined in an anisotropic, 3-dimensional, Gaussian potential.

Fujio Shimizu

Bart A. van Tiggelen