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arXiv:atom-ph/9510003 · Physical Review A

Band gaps for atoms in light-based waveguides

J. J. Hope, Craig M. Savage

Published May 1, 1996• 6 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The energy spectrum for a system of atoms in a periodic potential can exhibit a gap in the band structure. We describe a system in which a laser is used to produce a mechanical potential for the atoms, and a standing-wave light field is used to shift the atomic levels using the Autler-Townes effect, which produces a periodic potential. The band structure for atoms guided by a hollow optical fiber waveguide is calculated in three dimensions with quantized external motion. The size of the band gap is controlled by the light guided by the fiber. This variable band structure may allow the construction of devices that can cool atoms. The major limitation on this device would be the spontaneous emission losses. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.53.3449

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•Jan 1, 2008•6 citations
The energy spectrum for a system of atoms in a periodic potential can exhibit a gap in the band structure. We describe a system in which a laser is used to produce a mechanical potential for the atoms, and a standing-wave light field is used to shift the atomic levels using the Autler-Townes effect, which produces a periodic potential. The band structure for atoms guided by a hollow optical fiber waveguide is calculated in three dimensions with quantized external motion. The size of the band gap is controlled by the light guided by the fiber. This variable band structure may allow the construction of devices that can cool atoms. The major limitation on this device would be the spontaneous emission losses. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We present a theoretical analysis of coherent atomic motion through a straight atomic waveguide constructed from a hollow optical fiber. Atoms are guided by the evanescent light field at the fiber's interior glass-vacuum interface. The atoms' internal structure is modeled by a Jg{\mathit{J}}_{\mathit{g}}Jg​=0 to Je{\mathit{J}}_{\mathit{e}}Je​=1 transition. The atomic wave functions are determined and the loss rates due to spontaneous emission, tunneling to the wall, and nonadiabatic transitions are estimated. The influence of Casimir-Polder forces is considered. We conclude with a discussion of the feasibility of the proposed waveguides.
The electric field intensity of a standing-wave laser field is periodic in space. Due to the ac Stark effect, this gives rise to a spatially periodic potential acting on an atom, as explained in Chapter 4 (see, e.g., Eq. (4.31)). This is the physical principle behind the generation of optical lattices. By superimposing a number of different laser beams it is possible to generate potentials which are periodic in one, two or three dimensions. The suggestion that standing light waves may be used to confine the motion of atoms dates back to 1968 and is due to Letokhov. The first experimental realization of an optical lattice was achieved in 1987 for a classical gas of cesium atoms. The study of atoms in such potentials has many different facets. At the simplest level, it is possible to study the energy band structure of atoms moving in these potentials and to explore experimentally a number of effects that are difficult to observe for electrons in the periodic lattice of a solid. Interactions between atoms introduce qualitatively new effects. Within mean-field theory, which applies when the number of atoms in the vicinity of a single minimum of the potential is sufficiently large, one finds that interatomic interactions give rise to novel features in the band structure. These include multivaluedness of the energy for a given band and states possessing a periodicity different from that of the optical lattice.
Recent demonstrations of light-matter interactions with atoms and molecules confined to hollow waveguides offer great promise for ultralow-light-level applications. The use of waveguides allows for tight optical confinement over interaction lengths much greater than what could be achieved in bulk geometries. However, the combination of strong atom-photon interactions and nonuniformity of guided light modes gives rise to spectroscopic features that must be understood in order to take full advantage of the properties of such systems. We use light-induced atomic desorption to generate an optically dense Rb vapor at room temperature inside a hollow-core photonic band-gap fiber. Saturable-absorption spectroscopy and passive slow-light experiments reveal large ac Stark shifts, power broadening, and transit-time broadening, that are present in this system even at nanowatt powers.
Spatial gaps correspond to the projection in position space of the gaps of a periodic structure whose envelope varies spatially. They can be easily generated in cold atomic physics using finite-size optical lattice, and provide a new kind of tunnel barrier which can be used as a versatile tool for quantum devices. We present in detail different theoretical methods to quantitatively describe these systems, and show how they can be used in one dimension to realize matter wave Fabry-Perot cavities. We also provide experimental and numerical results that demonstrate the interest of spatial gap structures for phase space engineering. We then generalize the concept of spatial gaps in two dimensions and show that this enables one to design multiply connected cavities which generate a quantum dot structure for atoms or allow one to construct curved wave guides for matter waves. At last, we demonstrate that modulating in time the amplitude of the periodic structure offers a wide variety of possible atom manipulations including the control of the scattering of an incoming wave packet, the loading of cavities delimited by spatial gaps, their coupling by multiphonon processes or the realization of a tunable source of atoms. This large range of possibilities offered by space and time engineering of optical lattices demonstrates the flexibility of such band-gap structures for matter wave control, quantum simulators, and atomtronics.
Laser-cooled atoms from a low-velocity atomic source are guided in a hollow-core optical fiber using the evanescent-wave dipole force from blue-detuned laser light launched into the glass region of the fiber. The transverse velocity of the guided atoms corresponds to a temperature of $50 \ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}.$ We achieve a maximum flux through a 23.5-cm-long fiber of 590 000 atoms/second with a laser power of 55 mWatts at a detuning of 6 GHz. With larger detunings of 40 GHz, spontaneous emission from the atoms inside the fiber can be suppressed and the atom's internal-state population is preserved. We identify two major loss mechanisms for the guiding process and discuss possible solutions.
An extended Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in an optical lattice provides a kind of periodic dielectric and causes band gaps to occur in the spectrum of light propagating through it. We examine the question whether these band gaps can modify the spontaneous emission rate of atoms excited from the BEC, and whether they can lead to a self-stabilization of the BEC against spontaneous emission. We find that self-stabilization is not possible for BECs with a density in the order of 10 14 cm −3. However, the corresponding non-Markovian behavior produces significant effects in the decay of excited atoms even for a homogeneous BEC interacting with a weak laser beam. These effects are caused by the occurrence of an avoided crossing in the photon (or rather polariton) spectrum. We also predict a new channel for spontaneous decay which arises from an interference between periodically excited atoms and periodic photon modes. This new channel should also occur in ordinary periodic dielectrics. 1