Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Optics Express

Miniature atom bottle traps enabled by chiral doughnut light

V. E. Lembessis, Koray Köksal, M. Babiker, Jun Tang Yuan

Published Feb 19, 2024• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We highlight what we believe to be a novel optical set-up which enables the confinement of cold atoms in a finite set of sub-wavelength bottle traps. This involves two counter-propagating vortex beams with the same winding number ℓ = ±1 and the same circular polarization ($\sigma =\mp 1)$. Strong focusing generates significant longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave enabling the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. The off-axis radial confinement is provided by the optical potential due to the transverse components of the light. The trap characteristics are illustrated using experimentally accessible parameters and are tunable by changing the power, focusing and ellipticity of the light. Atoms trapped in such a set-up are useful for applications, including quantum simulation and quantum information processing.

DOI
10.1364/oe.516270

Related papers

Miniature atom bottle traps enabled by chiral doughnut light

Jun Tang Yuan, Koray Köksal, V. E. Lembessis +1 more

A novel optical set-up which enables cold atoms to be trapped in a finite set of miniature (sub-wavelength) bottle traps is highlighted. These bottle traps are formed when the atoms interact with a tightly focused standing wave due to two-counter propagating optical vortex beams possessing the same winding number $\ell=\pm1$ and the same circular polarization ($\sigma=\mp 1)$. Tight focusing generates strong longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave. The resulting optical potential leads to the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. This completes the formation of the bottle trap, since the off-axis radial confinement is, as usual, provided by the optical potential due to the interference of the transverse components of the light. The main characteristics of the bottle traps are illustrated using typical experimentally-accessible parameters. Due to the spin-orbit coupling the trap parameters are tunable by changing the ellipicity of the light.

•Jul 21, 2023•0 citations

Miniature atom bottle traps enabled by chiral doughnut light

Jun Tang Yuan, Koray Köksal, V. E. Lembessis +1 more

A novel optical set-up which enables cold atoms to be trapped in a finite set of miniature (sub-wavelength) bottle traps is highlighted. These bottle traps are formed when the atoms interact with a tightly focused standing wave due to two-counter propagating optical vortex beams possessing the same winding number $\ell=\pm1$ and the same circular polarization ($\sigma=\mp 1)$. Tight focusing generates strong longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave. The resulting optical potential leads to the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. This completes the formation of the bottle trap, since the off-axis radial confinement is, as usual, provided by the optical potential due to the interference of the transverse components of the light. The main characteristics of the bottle traps are illustrated using typical experimentally-accessible parameters. Due to the spin-orbit coupling the trap parameters are tunable by changing the ellipicity of the light.

•Jul 21, 2023•0 citations

Trapping of Bose-Einstein condensates in a three-dimensional dark focus generated by conical refraction

Dominik Pfeiffer, Ludwig Lind, J. Küber +5 more

We present an efficient three-dimensional dark-focus optical trapping potential for neutral atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates. This ``optical bottle'' is created by a single blue-detuned light field exploiting the phenomenon of conical refraction occurring in biaxial crystals. The conversion of a Gaussian input beam to the bottle beam has an efficiency of close to 100% and the optical setup requires the addition of the biaxial crystal and a circular polarizer only. Based on the conical-refraction theory, we derive the general form of the potential, the trapping frequencies, and the potential barrier heights. We present experiments on confining a $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ Bose-Einstein condensate in three dimensions. We determine the trap shape, the vibrational frequencies along the weak axis, as well as the lifetime of ultracold atoms in this type of potential.

arXiv:1705.02425•Physical Review A•Nov 27, 2023•9 citations

Trapping a single atom in a blue detuned optical bottle beam trap

Peng Xu, Xiaodong He, Jin Wang +1 more

We demonstrate trapping a single rubidium atom in a blue detuned optical bottle beam trap. The trap was formed by a strongly focused blue detuned laser beam, which passes through a computer-generated circular pi phase hologram displayed on a spatial light modulator. Single atoms were loaded from a magneto-optical trap and stored in the optical trap for several seconds.

Optics Letters•Jun 21, 2010•167 citations

Chirality-enabled optical dipole potential energy for two-level atoms

V. E. Lembessis, Koray Köksal, J. Yuan +1 more

We consider the optical dipole potential energy, which arises from the interaction of a two-level atom with a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam of small waist. The beam is characterized by the existence of a longitudinal electric field component which is responsible for the appearance of a chiral term in the optical dipole potential energy. This term reverses sign if either the winding number or the wave polarization of the beam reverses sign. We propose a scheme of a bi-chromatic vortex interaction with the two-level atom in which the resulting optical dipole potential is fully chiral.

arXiv:2012.09465•Physical Review A•Jan 13, 2021•16 citations

Ultrahigh-precision Rydberg atomic localization using optical vortices

Ning Jia, Teodora Kirova, Gediminas Juzeliūnas +2 more

We propose a robust localization of the highly-excited Rydberg atoms, interacting with doughnut-shaped optical vortices. Compared with the earlier standing-wave (SW)-based localization methods, a vortex beam can provide an ultrahigh-precision two-dimensional localization solely in the zero-intensity center, within a confined excitation region down to the nanometer scale. We show that the presence of the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction permits counter-intuitively much stronger confinement towards a high spatial resolution when it is partially compensated by a suitable detuning. In addition, applying an auxiliary SW modulation to the two-photon detuning allows a three-dimensional confinement of Rydberg atoms. In this case, the vortex field provides a transverse confinement while the SW modulation of the two-photon detuning localizes the Rydberg atoms longitudinally. To develop a new subwavelength localization technique, our results pave one-step closer to reduce excitation volumes to the level of a few nanometers, representing a feasible implementation for the future experimental applications.

•May 21, 2020•0 citations
We highlight what we believe to be a novel optical set-up which enables the confinement of cold atoms in a finite set of sub-wavelength bottle traps. This involves two counter-propagating vortex beams with the same winding number ℓ = ±1 and the same circular polarization (σ=∓1)\sigma =\mp 1)σ=∓1). Strong focusing generates significant longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave enabling the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. The off-axis radial confinement is provided by the optical potential due to the transverse components of the light. The trap characteristics are illustrated using experimentally accessible parameters and are tunable by changing the power, focusing and ellipticity of the light. Atoms trapped in such a set-up are useful for applications, including quantum simulation and quantum information processing.
A novel optical set-up which enables cold atoms to be trapped in a finite set of miniature (sub-wavelength) bottle traps is highlighted. These bottle traps are formed when the atoms interact with a tightly focused standing wave due to two-counter propagating optical vortex beams possessing the same winding number ℓ=±1\ell=\pm1ℓ=±1 and the same circular polarization (σ=∓1)\sigma=\mp 1)σ=∓1). Tight focusing generates strong longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave. The resulting optical potential leads to the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. This completes the formation of the bottle trap, since the off-axis radial confinement is, as usual, provided by the optical potential due to the interference of the transverse components of the light. The main characteristics of the bottle traps are illustrated using typical experimentally-accessible parameters. Due to the spin-orbit coupling the trap parameters are tunable by changing the ellipicity of the light.
A novel optical set-up which enables cold atoms to be trapped in a finite set of miniature (sub-wavelength) bottle traps is highlighted. These bottle traps are formed when the atoms interact with a tightly focused standing wave due to two-counter propagating optical vortex beams possessing the same winding number ℓ=±1\ell=\pm1ℓ=±1 and the same circular polarization (σ=∓1)\sigma=\mp 1)σ=∓1). Tight focusing generates strong longitudinal field components which become responsible for an on-axis standing wave. The resulting optical potential leads to the axial confinement of far blue-detuned atoms. This completes the formation of the bottle trap, since the off-axis radial confinement is, as usual, provided by the optical potential due to the interference of the transverse components of the light. The main characteristics of the bottle traps are illustrated using typical experimentally-accessible parameters. Due to the spin-orbit coupling the trap parameters are tunable by changing the ellipicity of the light.
We present an efficient three-dimensional dark-focus optical trapping potential for neutral atoms and Bose-Einstein condensates. This ``optical bottle'' is created by a single blue-detuned light field exploiting the phenomenon of conical refraction occurring in biaxial crystals. The conversion of a Gaussian input beam to the bottle beam has an efficiency of close to 100% and the optical setup requires the addition of the biaxial crystal and a circular polarizer only. Based on the conical-refraction theory, we derive the general form of the potential, the trapping frequencies, and the potential barrier heights. We present experiments on confining a 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate in three dimensions. We determine the trap shape, the vibrational frequencies along the weak axis, as well as the lifetime of ultracold atoms in this type of potential.
We consider the optical dipole potential energy, which arises from the interaction of a two-level atom with a circularly polarized Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam of small waist. The beam is characterized by the existence of a longitudinal electric field component which is responsible for the appearance of a chiral term in the optical dipole potential energy. This term reverses sign if either the winding number or the wave polarization of the beam reverses sign. We propose a scheme of a bi-chromatic vortex interaction with the two-level atom in which the resulting optical dipole potential is fully chiral.
We propose a robust localization of the highly-excited Rydberg atoms, interacting with doughnut-shaped optical vortices. Compared with the earlier standing-wave (SW)-based localization methods, a vortex beam can provide an ultrahigh-precision two-dimensional localization solely in the zero-intensity center, within a confined excitation region down to the nanometer scale. We show that the presence of the Rydberg-Rydberg interaction permits counter-intuitively much stronger confinement towards a high spatial resolution when it is partially compensated by a suitable detuning. In addition, applying an auxiliary SW modulation to the two-photon detuning allows a three-dimensional confinement of Rydberg atoms. In this case, the vortex field provides a transverse confinement while the SW modulation of the two-photon detuning localizes the Rydberg atoms longitudinally. To develop a new subwavelength localization technique, our results pave one-step closer to reduce excitation volumes to the level of a few nanometers, representing a feasible implementation for the future experimental applications.