Alexandria Engineering Journal

Effects of electric quadrupole interactions with tunable atomic mirrors

S. Al‐Awfi

Published Dec 14, 2022• 3 citations

Abstract

Recent studies have involved electric quadrupole effects in atoms interacting with the evanescent mode. This type of surface mode is usually produced by the total internal reflection in a dielectric-vacuum atz=0, and its intensity distribution is very close to the outer surface z>0 half-space. Coating the planar surface of a dielectric substrate with multilayer dielectric thin film of different thicknesses provides an enhanced in such evanescent modes. This type of mode can be used purely as an atomic mirror. We show that the use of such elements for atomic optics gives significant enhancement of the evanescent mode magnitude without degrading the quality of the atomic reflection process. In addition, the decay depth of the evanescent mode can be conveniently controlled by design parameters. This property keeps the atom-light interaction timeτ, and thus the probability of decay emission, very low, which means a high degree of coherence property.

DOI: 10.1016/j.aej.2022.11.042

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