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Chinese Physics B

Quasi-two-dimensional isotropic laser cooling of atoms for quantum sensing

Zhang Xiao, Yi 屹 Song 宋, Yuan 远 Sun 孙, Liang Liu

Published May 7, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Isotropic laser cooling (ILC) is widely recognized for its distinct advantages and demonstrates significant potential in quantum precision measurements and quantum sensing technologies. The morphology and density distribution of the cold atomic cloud generated by ILC are strongly influenced by the distribution of cooling light and the structural geometry of the cavity, making precise characterization and optimization of cold atom distribution essential for practical applications. In this paper, we present an innovative flat diffuse cavity design with the dimensions approximating a quasi-two-dimensional configuration, which generates a sheet-like isotropic laser field inside the cavity through diffuse reflections. We thoroughly characterized the system’s performance under different optical parameter settings. A two-dimensional (2D) movable detection system was employed to detect the quasi-two-dimensional distribution of cold atoms. These results demonstrate the ability of ILC to produce diverse morphological and density distributions of cold atoms, which we anticipate will be suitable for quantum sensing.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/add4f7

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Abstract Isotropic laser cooling (ILC) is widely recognized for its distinct advantages and demonstrates significant potential in quantum precision measurements and quantum sensing technologies. The morphology and density distribution of the cold atomic cloud generated by ILC are strongly influenced by the distribution of cooling light and the structural geometry of the cavity, making precise characterization and optimization of cold atom distribution essential for practical applications. In this paper, we present an innovative flat diffuse cavity design with the dimensions approximating a quasi-two-dimensional configuration, which generates a sheet-like isotropic laser field inside the cavity through diffuse reflections. We thoroughly characterized the system’s performance under different optical parameter settings. A two-dimensional (2D) movable detection system was employed to detect the quasi-two-dimensional distribution of cold atoms. These results demonstrate the ability of ILC to produce diverse morphological and density distributions of cold atoms, which we anticipate will be suitable for quantum sensing.
Quantum sensing with cold atoms is attracting more and more attention in the research frontier of quantum technologies. Isotropic laser cooling serves as a promising platform for this area and its many advantages include compactness, robustness, and not requiring fine-tuning of the optical alignment or magnetic field, which are particularly suitable for field and space applications. We have designed and demonstrated a special form of isotropic laser cooling system that is specifically tailored for the purpose of quantum sensing. In particular, the diffused cooling optical field is generated by hollow laser beam injection and the quality of detection process is improved. Moreover, the effective strength of diffused cooling laser is quantitatively deduced. We have carefully characterized the properties of our system, including the laser cooling performances with respect to different parameter settings, the influences of cooling laser polarization and repumping laser power, and radial atom density distribution. We anticipate that our progress will contribute to the future development of isotropic laser cooling for quantum sensing and quantum precision measurements.
We demonstrate experimentally the generation of one-dimensional cold gases of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms by diffuse laser cooling. A horizontal slender vacuum glass tube with a length of 105 cm and diameter of 2 cm is used in our experiment. The diffuse laser light inside the tube, which is generated by multireflection of injected lasers, cools the background vapor atoms. With 250 mW of cooling light and 50 mW of repumping light, an evenly distributed 1-m-long profile of cold atom cloud is obtained. We observe a factor 4 improvement in the atomic optical density for a typical cooling duration of 170 ms and a sub-Doppler atomic temperature of 25 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. The central number of detected cold atoms remains constant for a free-fall duration of 30 ms. Such samples are ideal for many quantum optical experiments involving electromagnetically induced transparency, electronically highly excited (Rydberg) atoms, and quantum precision measurements.
We develop a form of nondestructive optical thermometry to deterministically measure the temperature of the selected segment of a cold-atom ensemble. The essence is to monitor the thermal expansion of the targeted cold atoms after their labeling through manipulation of the internal states, and the nondestructive property relies on nearly lossless detection via the driving of a cycling transition. The temperature information is extracted from the change of densities via a bucket detector without the necessity of a complicated imaging setup. We also focus on the application of this method to isotropic laser cooling, and it has the capability of addressing only the atoms on the optical detection axis within the enclosure, which is readily compatible with typical configurations of atomic clocks or quantum sensing. Our results confirm the sub-Doppler-cooling features of isotropic laser cooling, and we further investigate the relevant cooling properties. Furthermore, we demonstrate the recently developed optical configuration with injection of cooling-laser light in the form of hollow beams, which helps to enhance the cooling performance and accumulate more cold atoms in the central regions.
Abstract We demonstrate an integrating sphere to cool 87Rb atoms and measure the recoil-induced resonance and electromagnetically induced absorption spectrum. We measure the relationship between their linewidth and light shift with variation of the detuning and power of the cooling laser and study the performance of the diffuse laser cooling mechanism by the absorption linewidth radio Δν E/Δν R and light shift |Δ R–Δ E| using nonlinear spectroscopy. Specifically, when Δν E/Δν R reaches a value of 1.57, the temperature and number of cold atoms achieve the optimal cooling effect. This characterization of absorption linewidth and light shift will provide a method to estimate whether diffuse light cooling achieves the best cooling effect, contributing to the future development of isotropic laser cooling for application in quantum sensing.
Laser cooled atoms have proven transformative for precision metrology, playing a pivotal role in state-of-the-art clocks and interferometers and having the potential to provide a step-change in our modern technological capabilities. To successfully explore their full potential, laser cooling platforms must be translated from the laboratory environment and into portable, compact quantum sensors for deployment in practical applications. This transition requires the amalgamation of a wide range of components and expertise if an unambiguously chip-scale cold atom sensor is to be realized. We present recent developments in cold-atom sensor miniaturization, focusing on key components that enable laser cooling on the chip-scale. The design, fabrication, and impact of the components on sensor scalability and performance will be discussed with an outlook to the next generation of chip-scale cold atom devices.
Two-dimensional systems are of great interest in physics as the celebrated quantum-Hall effects show, which are based on a 2D electron gas. Neutral systems involve thin He films and spin polarized atomic hydrogen in a cryogenic environment, where the successful creation of a 2D quasi-condensate was recently reported. Over the last years, with laser cooling and trapping techniques at hand, several schemes for the preparation of laser cooled atomic 2D gases have been proposed. Low dimensional gases are discussed as keys to achieve high density samples of purely optically cooled atoms, since the reabsorption of scattered photons is greatly suppressed compared to the situation in 3D. On the other hand, by structuring 2D waveguide light fields laterally, very versatile "integrated atom optical" elements can be realized. We have prepared a quasi-2D gas of argon atoms confined in a planar matter waveguide less than 1 /spl mu/m away from a reflecting surface. We trap metastable Ar/sup +/ atoms in the ls/sub 5/(J=2) state in a magneto-optical trap. Upon release, they fall towards a gold coated prism surface where an evanescent light field is generated by resonant excitation of surface plasmons in the gold layer. This light field is blue detuned from the 1s/sub 5//spl hArr/2p/sub 9/(J=3) transition and hence creates a repulsive potential which slows down the falling atoms.