Beam assisted atomic layer manipulation

Georg A. Raithel

Fujio Shimizu

Nuttanan Tanasanchai, Kritsana Srakeaw, J. Phrompao +1 more

We present an asymmetric focused-beam trap of rubidium-85 atoms where the cloud volume only varied with the trap laser intensity. By repumping on F=2 to F'=2 D2 transition, the Stokes Raman scattering has strongly affected the population ratio in the two hyperfine ground states. With the volume and trap number simultaneously and separately controlled, we have shown that the cloud density can be monotonously manipulated from zero to the maximum value limited by the cooling power. By solely varying the intensity of repump laser, the scheme for precision loading of exact 1-6 atoms in the FORT, which is beyond the practical loading limit of the blue-detuned light-assisted collision, is described.

Chao Hang, Guoxiang Huang

Abstract Rogue waves (RWs) are mysterious nonlinear waves and have attracted much attention in recent years. However, they are usually unstable during propagation. Here, a scheme for stabilizing and guiding optical RWs in a cold atomic gas working under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency is presented. It is shown that an external potential for probe laser field can be created by using an assisting laser field. If the assisting laser field has the form of Gaussian beam, the instability of the RWs can be largely suppressed. It is also shown that the RWs can be stabilized and guided to propagate along curved trajectories if the assisting laser field has the form of Airy beam. The results reported here contribute to the effort for stabilizing and manipulating RWs, which may have potential applications in optical transmission and information processing.

Polykarp Kusch

Nawaz Sarif Mallick

We conduct theoretical investigations into a fundamental closed-loop Λ-type atomic system using 87 Rb atoms, aiming to efficiently generate and manipulate structured light beams. A phase-singular microwave (MW) beam with a topological charge l μ and a phase-singular optical probe beam with a topological charge l p collectively induce phase-dependent atomic coherence, resulting in periodic oscillations of probe absorption in the transverse plane. The number of absorption or transparency windows in the transverse plane is determined by the resultant topological charge of the system, denoted as l = l μ − l p . We investigate the propagation of a paraxial doughnut-shaped probe beam through the phase-dependent atomic medium and showcase the generation of petal-like structured beams for various combinations of l μ and l p . We provide a detailed theoretical explanation of these results using the analytical expression of probe susceptibility. We outline how this scheme effectively serves as a sensor adept at discerning particular OAM modes. This selective detection capability is valuable in scenarios where only certain OAM states carry relevant information. The relative phase between the interacting fields can be used to rotate the structured probe beam by 360 deg in the clockwise or counterclockwise direction. This manipulation of spatial position of different OAM modes can be employed in implementing OAM-based logical operations.