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Physical Review A

Transporting cold atoms using an optically compensated zoom lens

Jae Hoon Lee, Haejun Jung, Jae-yoon Choi, Jongchul Mun

Published Dec 10, 2020• 9 citations

Abstract

We report the design and application of an optically compensated zoom lens supporting a moving optical dipole trap for transporting cold atoms. The proposed zoom lens is designed to have tunable magnification in a compact form factor which can significantly reduce the required long optical path lengths in conventional moving optical dipole trap systems. Without the need of mechanical cams for zooming, the optically compensated zoom lens has the ability to control the position of the trap along the optical axis with high precision while maintaining a constant trap depth by conserving the numerical aperture of the laser beam focus during the transport. We experimentally comprise an optically compensated zoom lens having dimensions of $\ensuremath{\lesssim}20$ cm in length, which can be readily configured to suit a wide range of desired transport lengths from 0.15 to 3 m and displacement magnifications from 7 to 100. The performance of our moving optical dipole trap is tested for a target transport length of 600 mm using a 532 nm laser beam on laser-cooled ytterbium atoms. The atoms can be transported to an adjacent vacuum chamber using this optically compensated zoom lens with $\ensuremath{\sim}89%$ efficiency.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.102.063106

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We report the design and application of an optically compensated zoom lens supporting a moving optical dipole trap for transporting cold atoms. The proposed zoom lens is designed to have tunable magnification in a compact form factor which can significantly reduce the required long optical path lengths in conventional moving optical dipole trap systems. Without the need of mechanical cams for zooming, the optically compensated zoom lens has the ability to control the position of the trap along the optical axis with high precision while maintaining a constant trap depth by conserving the numerical aperture of the laser beam focus during the transport. We experimentally comprise an optically compensated zoom lens having dimensions of

\ensuremath{\lesssim}20

cm in length, which can be readily configured to suit a wide range of desired transport lengths from 0.15 to 3 m and displacement magnifications from 7 to 100. The performance of our moving optical dipole trap is tested for a target transport length of 600 mm using a 532 nm laser beam on laser-cooled ytterbium atoms. The atoms can be transported to an adjacent vacuum chamber using this optically compensated zoom lens with

\ensuremath{\sim}89%

efficiency.

Transporting cold atoms between interconnected vacuum chambers is an important technique for increasing the versatility of cold atom setups, particularly for those that couple atoms to photonic devices. In this report, we introduce a method where we are able to image the atoms at all points during transport via moving optical dipole trap. Cooled 87Rb atoms are transported ∼50 cm into an auxiliary vacuum chamber while being monitored with a moving-frame imaging system for which in-situ characterization of the atom transport is demonstrated. Precise positioning of the atoms near photonic devices is also tested across several tapered fibers showing an axial positioning resolution of ∼450 μm.

We present an optical setup with focus-tunable lenses to dynamically control the waist and focus position of a laser beam, in which we transport a trapped ultracold cloud of 87 Rb over a distance of . The scheme allows us to shift the focus position at constant waist, providing uniform trapping conditions over the full transport length. The fraction of atoms that are transported over the entire distance comes near to unity, while the heating of the cloud is in the range of a few microkelvin. We characterize the position stability of the focus and show that residual drift rates in focus position can be compensated for by counteracting with the tunable lenses. Beyond being a compact and robust scheme to transport ultracold atoms, the reported control of laser beams makes dynamic tailoring of trapping potentials possible. As an example, we steer the size of the atomic cloud by changing the waist size of the dipole beam.

Crossed optical dipole traps (ODTs) provide three-dimensional confinement of cold atoms and other optically trappable particles. However, the need to maintain the intersection of the two trapping beams poses strict requirements on alignment stability, and limits the ability to move the trap. Here we demonstrate a novel crossed ODT design that features inherent stability of the beam crossing, allowing the trap to move and remain aligned. The trap consists of a single high-power laser beam, imaged back onto itself at an angle to form a crossed trap. Self-aligning behavior results from employing an imaging system with positive magnification tuned precisely to unity. We employ laser-cooled samples of

^6

Li atoms to demonstrate that the trap remains well-aligned over a 4.3 mm travel range along an axis approximately perpendicular to the plane containing the crossed beams. Our scheme can be applied to bring an atomic cloud held in a crossed ODT close to a surface or field source for various applications in quantum simulation, sensing, and information processing.

Cold neutral atoms is a powerful tool for many experiments ranging from frequency standards and sensing to quantum simulations. Sensitive experiments often demand transferring cold atoms from one vacuum chamber to the other with better optical access and vacuum. In case the transfer is done with a beam waist controlled by a focus-tunable lens, repeatability of the transfer as well as stability of the final position can be below the experimental demands. Here we implement the scheme for stabilization of the axial waist position of the optical dipole trap in the whole range of transfer (38 cm) using speckle patterns, which provides enough stability to achieve Bose-Einstein condensation of around 4*10^4 thulium atoms in the trap formed by the transport beam and the other beam in the target vacuum volume

Efficient transport of cold atoms is essential for continuous operation, enabling applications ranging from atomic lasers to continuously operated qubits. However, deep potentials required to overcome vibrations, axial trap nonuniformity and insufficient cooling have limited transport of cold atoms near quantum degeneracy. Here we demonstrate rapid optical transport of cold atoms to Bose-Einstein condensation using a moving optical lattice formed by two Bessel beams. A gas of

3 \times 10^5

ytterbium atoms at a temperature of

340\,

nK is transported over

34\,

cm in

350\,

ms with efficiency over

60\%

. Furthermore, a degenerate gas of

1 \times 10^5

atoms with a

40\%

condensate fraction emerges from the phase synchronization process driven by atomic interactions. This demonstration enables the fast preparation of ultracold atomic beams and large-scale atom arrays for quantum sensing, simulation and computing.