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Contemporary Physics

Atom Hosepipes

Kishan Dholakia

Published Sep 1, 1998• 20 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recent work has shown that it is possible to transport atoms along hollow core optical fibres using suitable light beams coupled into the fibres. These 'atom hosepipes' open up the possibility of precisely manipulating and positioning atomic beams and samples. This paves the way for transporting atoms to 'cleaner' vacuum systems for precision measurements and also for novel studies of wave-particle duality. This article discusses the physical principles behind this technique and also reviews some of the most recent experiments in this field. Future prospects, including the transport of cold atoms, are also discussed.

DOI
10.1080/001075198181856

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•Feb 15, 2018•1 citation
Recent work has shown that it is possible to transport atoms along hollow core optical fibres using suitable light beams coupled into the fibres. These 'atom hosepipes' open up the possibility of precisely manipulating and positioning atomic beams and samples. This paves the way for transporting atoms to 'cleaner' vacuum systems for precision measurements and also for novel studies of wave-particle duality. This article discusses the physical principles behind this technique and also reviews some of the most recent experiments in this field. Future prospects, including the transport of cold atoms, are also discussed.
Summary form only given. Recent advances in cold atom physics have seen the emergence of the area of atom guiding along hollow core optical fibres and also along light beams. Both employ the optical dipole force which for suitably tuned light can restrict the atoms to the dark hollow region of the fibre or the light beam. In this work, we discuss and analyse a novel scheme of channelling cold atoms into a high-order Bessel beam (via a high-order Laguerre-Gaussian beam) and demonstrate an efficient method of producing such beams.
Light can exert optical forces on matter. In the macroscopic world these forces are minuscule, but on the microscopic or atomic scale, these forces are large enough to trap and manipulate particles. They may even be used to cool atoms to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. \n \nThis thesis details a number of experiments concerned with the optical manipulation of atoms and micron-size particles using free space light beams and photonic crystal fibres. \n \nTwo atom guiding experiments are described. In the first experiment, a spatial light modulator is used to generate higher blue-detuned azimuthal Laguerre-Gaussian LG) beams, which are annular beams with a hollow core. These LG beams are then used to guide laser cooled rubidium-85 atoms within the dark core over a distance of 30 mm. The second atom guiding experiment involves attempting to guide laser cooled and thermal rubidium atoms through a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre using red-detuned light. Hollow-core photonic crystal fibres are fibres that are able to guide light with low attenuation within a hollow core. For this experiment a hot wire detection system was designed, along with a number of complex vacuum systems. \n \nThe first dual-beam fibre trap for micron-size particles constructed using endlessly single-mode photonic crystal fibre (ESM-PCF) is described. The characteristics of dual-beam fibre traps are governed by the fibres used. As ESM-PCF has considerably different properties in comparison to conventional single- or multimode fibres, this dual beam ESM-PCF trap exhibits some novel characteristics. I show that the dual beam ESM-PCF trap can form trapping, repulsive and line potentials; an interference-free ‘white light’ trap; and a dual-wavelength optical conveyor belt.
In this thesis I describe experimental work and present data on the guiding of \nRubidium atoms along free-space propagating light beams as well as within hollow \ncore glass fibres, namely photonic crystal fibres. I describe experiments, laser systems \nand vacuum trap assemblies designed to facilitate this guiding. \nThese experiments are intended to aid progression within the field of cold \natom guidance wherein narrow diameter, long distance hollow-fibre guides are a \ncurrent goal. Realisation of these guides could lead to promising applications such as \natom interferometers and spatially accurate, multi-source, atom depositors. \nHerein, guided fluxes are observed in free-space guiding experiments for \ndistances up to 50mm and up to 10GHz red-detuning from resonance. Additionally \nhollow-core, Kagome structured, quasi- and true-photonic crystal fibres are \ncharacterised. Finally a number of detailed fibre-guiding magneto-optic traps are \ndeveloped. \nBoth cold atomic-beams and cold atomic clouds are reliably positioned above \nfibre entrance facets in conjunction with a guiding laser beam coupled into the fibre \ncore. \nIssues regarding optical flux detection outwith fibre confinement appear to \nhave hindered observation of guided atoms. A far more sensitive detection system has \nbeen developed for use in current, ongoing fibre-guide experiments.
We report on an efficient and highly controlled cold atom hollow-core fiber interface, suitable for quantum simulation, information, and sensing. The main focus of this manuscript is a detailed study on transporting cold atoms into the fiber using an optical conveyor belt. We discuss how we can precisely control the spatial, thermal, and temporal distribution of the atoms by, e.g., varying the speed at which the atoms are transported or adjusting the depth of the transport potential according to the atomic position. We characterize the transport of atoms to the fiber tip for these different parameters. In particular, we show that by adapting the transport potential we can lower the temperature of the transported atoms by a factor of 6, while reducing the transport efficiency only by a factor 2. We can obtain a transport efficiency into the fiber of about 40% and we study the influence of the different transport parameters on the time-dependent optical depth signal inside the fiber. When comparing our measurements to the results of a classical transport simulation, we find a good qualitative agreement.
We have developed an atom-guiding technique that loads 3×1063\times 10^63×106 cold rubidium atoms into hollow-core optical fibre, an order-of-magnitude larger than previously reported results. This achievement was guided by a physically realistic simulation that led to an experimental loading efficiency of 3%3\%3%, giving a peak optical depth of over 600600600. The loading efficiency was limited only by the geometric overlap of the atom cloud an an optical guide beam, and we have identified techniques that would allows us to exceed this limit. We also present a fast and minimally destructive probing technique that enables us to follow the dynamics of the cold atom cloud as it falls into the fibre - this strengthens the confidence in our detailed model, and enables adjustment of the experiment into an optimal state. We are able to observe the effect of light-assisted cold atom collisions as well as background gas collisions in the fibre. The combination of these observations and physical understanding from the simulation allows us to estimate the ultimate limits to loading cold atoms into hollow-core fibres.