Near-Field Optical Atom Manipulation: Toward Atom Photonics

治彦 伊藤, HARUHIKO ITO

Simon Bernon, Maxime Bellouvet, Caroline Busquet +1 more

Hajime Ito, Akifumi Takamizawa, H. Tanioka +2 more

Summary form only given. The conventional atom-manipulation techniques with propagating light are limited in spatial accuracy by diffraction effects of light waves. In order to overcome the diffraction limit and increase the manipulation accuracy, we can use the optical near field localized in a nanometer region. Such an optical near field is produced by a fiber probe with a nanometric aperture. We consider manipulating atoms by means of the dipole force from the localized optical near field. In this paper we report on the experimental progress toward the realization of atom manipulation with the nanometric fiber probe.

Ling-Xiao Wang, Lei Xu, Ai-Ping Liu +7 more

We propose and demonstrate a general mechanism for nanoscale lensing based on the phase gradient imposed by a single nanostructure scattering light in its near-field. We verify this effect using an optical waveguide on a substrate, with single atoms serving as quantum probes that sample the near-field intensity through their fluorescence. This quantum probing technique provides a unique, non-destructive approach to characterizing focused optical fields and reveals a 4-fold enhancement in single atom detection efficiency. This work establishes on-chip nanostructures as a multi-functional quantum optics platform that can efficiently route photons, localize fields, and enhance atom-photon coupling, offering new opportunities for trapping and manipulating single atoms and realizing hybrid nanophotonic-atomic systems for quantum applications.

U. Janicke, Martin Wilkens

HARUHIKO ITO