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SPIE Conference on Quantum and Nonlinear Optics

Sculpted light in optical micromanipulation and quantum atom optics

Halina H. Rubinsztein-Dunlop

Published Dec 31, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Sculpted light refers to the generation of custom designed light fields. These light fileds can be applied in many diverse fields ranging from interrogating single atoms or atom assembly to using these fields for optical micromanipulation and optical tweezers as well as creating new quantum devices and sensors. We consider here the study and application of light with structured intensity, polarization and phase. We can create custom fields in multiple planes using dynamic and geometric phase control. As an example, the use of sculpted light in imaging has led to superresolution microscopy developed by Betzig, Hell and Moerner (2014 Nobel prize in Chemistry). Sculpted light can be generated using several technologies. These are spatial light modulators (SLM) and Digital Micromirror Devices (DMD) that enable the production of configurable and flexible confining potentials at the nano and micron-scale. Sculpted light can also be produced using time averaged methods such as Acousto-Optics Modulators (AOM), enabling production of highly configurable time-averaged traps. All these methods achieve dynamical and flexible sculpted light fields and enable imaging of the amplitude patterns, phase and polarization. Using these sculpted light we can produce novel optical potentials which can be used for intricate studies of light -matter interactions in a variety of environments. We will describe their use ranging from studies such as quantum thermodynamics using ultra cold atoms to trapping and manipulating nano and micron-size objects or even making measurements in-vivo inside biological cells.

DOI
10.1117/12.2656162

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Sculpted light refers to the generation of custom designed light fields. These light fileds can be applied in many diverse fields ranging from interrogating single atoms or atom assembly to using these fields for optical micromanipulation and optical tweezers as well as creating new quantum devices and sensors. We consider here the study and application of light with structured intensity, polarization and phase. We can create custom fields in multiple planes using dynamic and geometric phase control. As an example, the use of sculpted light in imaging has led to superresolution microscopy developed by Betzig, Hell and Moerner (2014 Nobel prize in Chemistry). Sculpted light can be generated using several technologies. These are spatial light modulators (SLM) and Digital Micromirror Devices (DMD) that enable the production of configurable and flexible confining potentials at the nano and micron-scale. Sculpted light can also be produced using time averaged methods such as Acousto-Optics Modulators (AOM), enabling production of highly configurable time-averaged traps. All these methods achieve dynamical and flexible sculpted light fields and enable imaging of the amplitude patterns, phase and polarization. Using these sculpted light we can produce novel optical potentials which can be used for intricate studies of light -matter interactions in a variety of environments. We will describe their use ranging from studies such as quantum thermodynamics using ultra cold atoms to trapping and manipulating nano and micron-size objects or even making measurements in-vivo inside biological cells.
In recent years great progress was made in the spatial control of light with dynamic phase and amplitude modulators such as spatial light modulators and digital micromirror devices. In this work we describe the theory and practice of light shaping with such devices, detailing the spatial control of amplitude, phase and polarisation of coherent laser beams. We use our expertise in generating and measuring light fields with spatially dependent polarisation structures to characterise the correlations between spatial modes and polarisation in such light fields. We do this by adapting concurrence, a quantum measure of entanglement, to these classical correlations. One of the most promising application of coherent laser light is in the control of atomic media via atom-light interactions. In this work we describe the construction of simple external cavity diode lasers designed for the generation of resonant light for atomic physics applications. We exploit these lasers and spatial light modulators to create and measure three-dimensional atomic population structures in a warm rubidium vapour. We also implement a magneto-optic and a dynamic dark spontaneous-force optical trap for rubidium. These traps produce dense (~ 10^11 cm^-3) and cold (~100 uK) clouds of rubidium atoms. We develop the theory of spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency in such traps using rate equations. We find that the absorption of linearly polarised light depends on the relative direction of a magnetic field and the light polarisation. We use the cold atom clouds to measure the direction of magnetic fields by using this dependence and laser beams with structured polarisation.
Trapped neutral atoms are one of the leading platforms for quantum information technologies, in particular for quantum computing, but scaling them to array sizes needed for utility-scale quantum computing is a major engineering challenge. Here we review optical metasurfaces as an enabling technology that provides fine control over the phase, amplitude, and polarization of light, with pixel counts far exceeding what is available with spatial light modulators (SLMs) and other active devices. The large pixel counts have recently led to demonstrations of arrays of optical tweezers with hundreds of thousands of sites and arrays of optical bottle-beams with complex three-dimensional trapping profiles. The flexibility and scalability of optical metasurfaces provides a route towards miniaturized, integrated, and highly scalable atomic experiments and instruments.
We discuss the application of spatial light modulators (SLMs) to the field of atom optics. We show that SLMs may be used to generate a wide variety of optical potentials that are useful for the guiding and dipole trapping of atoms. This functionality is demonstrated by the production of a number of different light potentials using a single SLM device. These include Mach-Zender interferometer patterns and the generation of a bottle-beam. We also discuss the current limitations in SLM technology with regard to the generation of both static and dynamically deformed potentials and their use in atom optics.
Neutral atoms trapped by laser light are among the most promising candidates for storing and processing information in a quantum computer or simulator. The application certainly calls for a scalable and flexible scheme for addressing and manipulating the atoms. We have now made this a reality by implementing a fast and versatile method to dynamically control the position of neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers. The tweezers result from a spatial light modulator (SLM) controlling and shaping a large number of optical dipole-force traps. Trapped atoms adapt to any change in the potential landscape, such that one can rearrange and randomly access individual sites within atom-trap arrays.
Configurable trapping potentials are of great interest in cold atom physics, as they enable production of dynamical highly flexible fields that exhibit unprecedented stability and diverse geometries. Direct imaging can be used to create large area trapping potentials but is often overlooked due to its inability to correct for wavefront aberrations of the optical system [1]. This need not be a major disadvantage for a well-corrected optical system and brings advantages including the simplicity and speed of direct imaging. This is in contrast to the Fourier plane method which requires complex calculations to generate proper holograms and suffers from phase defects and speckle. For applications in cold atom trapping, these effects are especially detrimental as the atoms are sensitive to perturbations at the ~1% level of the optical potential. Our approach uses off-the-shelf lenses and microscope objectives and is able to achieve 630(10) nm full width half maximum (FWHM) patterning resolution using a 0.45 NA objective, within 5% of the diffraction limit of the system, while imaging through 1.25 mm of glass. The light field patterning is done using a digital micromirror device (DMD) which allows for dynamic trapping potentials due to its ability to store 13,889 frames and its 22 kHz full frame refresh rate. We use this method to pattern planar potentials for the purpose of cold atom experiments and have found that for atoms, which tend to respond relatively slowly to perturbations, it is possible to combine half-toning and time averaging to produce grey scale patterns, additionally allowing for pattern correction [2]. [1] P. C. Mogensen and J. Glückstad, Optics Communications 175, 75–81 (2000). [2] G. Gauthier, I. Lenton, N. McKay Parry, M. Baker, M. J. Davis, H. Rubinsztein-Dunlop, and T. W. Neely, arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.04928 (2016).
In this work we describe the design and implementation of an optical system that enables the study of the interactions of Rydberg atoms or other Rydberg species in well-defined geometries. To understand and observe the dynamics of Rydberg interactions, the ability to engineer different arrangements of microscopic cold atom traps and manipulate their positions with a precision of a few microns is essential. This is accomplished by a custom designed high-numerical-aperture long-working-distance objective lens and a spatial light modulator device to control the phase of an incoming optical beam. Several different trap geometries have been realized, with a spatial resolution of a few microns, including a 1-dimensional chain, a 2-dimensional square grid, and a circular array of traps. The objective lens has been designed to provide diffraction limited performance at multiple wavelengths facilitating the creation of not only micron-scale atom traps but also the fluorescence imaging of trapped atoms. The system enables precise control over trap positions, and hence the locations at which atoms might be excited, with applications in, for example, the study of long-range interactions between Rydberg atoms, the creation of long-range Rydberg molecules, the implementation of qubits for quantum computing based on Rydberg atoms, and in quantum simulation.