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Laser Physics

Atomic focusing and near field imaging: A combination for producing small-period nanostructures

S. Meneghini, Igor Jex, K. A. H. van Leeuwen, M.R. Kasimov, W. P. Schleich, Valery P. Yakovlev

Published Jan 1, 2000• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We present a scheme which combines focusing of atomic de Broglie waves by standing light waves and fractional Talbot imaging to produce nanostructures. Masking of the incoming atomic wave by an absorptive grating is used to eliminate atom-optical aberrations that would otherwise wash out the fractional Talbot images. The scheme allows the creation of structures of very small feature size as well as small period.

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•Sep 15, 2004•0 citations
We present a scheme which combines focusing of atomic de Broglie waves by standing light waves and fractional Talbot imaging to produce nanostructures. Masking of the incoming atomic wave by an absorptive grating is used to eliminate atom-optical aberrations that would otherwise wash out the fractional Talbot images. The scheme allows the creation of structures of very small feature size as well as small period.
Summary form only given.Recent developments in atom optics have led to different approaches to lithographic techniques with neutral atoms. One of these is the use of diffraction from free-standing masks, which is sometimes called atom holography. There, narrow structures arise due to matter-wave interference in the Fresnel regime. In the presented experiment, we demonstrate that the wave nature of atoms can be used to produce periodic structures with small periodicities. We used the Talbot effect in the Fresnel diffraction regime behind a microfabricated transmission grating. The Talbot effect is the self-imaging of a grating of periodicity d illuminated with plane coherent waves.
We propose a scheme to create high-contrast, periodic atom density distributions having period $\ensuremath{\lambda}/2n$ using the Talbot effect, where $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ is the wavelength of the optical fields that scatter the atoms and n is a positive integer. This filtered Talbot lens is comprised of two standing-wave optical fields. An atomic beam propagates perpendicular to the fields. The first field, which is far detuned from the atomic transition frequency, acts as an array of lenses that focuses the atoms. The second field, positioned at the atom optical focus of the first, is resonant with the atomic transition frequency and acts as an amplitude mask, leaving unperturbed only those atoms that pass through its nodes. At distances following the interaction with the second field that are equal to an integral fraction of the Talbot length, atomic density gratings having period $\ensuremath{\lambda}/2n$ are formed.
We have demonstrated the Talbot-Lau effect for atomic de Broglie waves in the time domain. This effect is based on Fresnel diffraction of matter waves from an incoherent source. In the experiment, de Broglie waves of atoms in a particular internal state have been manipulated and the resulting density directly imaged by resonant optical fields. These experiments allow us to probe the quantum dynamics of the atomic center of mass. We have also used this effect to create patterns in the density of the atoms with period as small as 1∕101∕101∕10 of the optical wavelength, demonstrating the potential application of this technique for atom nanofabrication.
The long range goal of this project was the creation of nanostructures using light fields to manipulate atoms. By passing an atomic beam through one or more standing wave light fields, it is possible to create modulations in the atomic density having periods which are a fraction of the period of the standing wave light fields. Patterns having periods as small as lambda/10 were observed using optical masks and clear evidence for matter-wave effects were established. Several theoretical methods for achieving sub-lambda matter wave patterns were developed, Moreover it was shown that it is possible to create optical lattices having reduced periodicity using Raman transitions in a novel atom-field geometry Experiments were carried out in both magneto-optical traps and atomic beams. In both experimental set-ups, pulsed standing wave optical fields were used to excite the atoms. At some later time the atoms were probed by a traveling wave field, revealing the spatial patterns that had evolved as a result of the atom-field interaction.