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arXiv:cond-mat/9708113

Squeezing Atomic Vibrations In An Optical Lattice. A New Mechanism Of Optical Cooling

Alexander L. Burin, Joseph L. Birman, A. Bulatov, HERSCHEL A. RABITZ

Published Aug 15, 1997• 0 citations
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Abstract

We propose a new method to obtain a squeezed matter field of atomic vibrations by use of an optical lattice, and the laser pulse technique of Garrett et al used for acoustic phonons [1]. We show that it is possible to reduce the variance of atomic momentum to a value as low as the recoil momentum. Consequently, cooling to recoil energy can be achieved.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/9708113

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We propose a new method to obtain a squeezed matter field of atomic vibrations by use of an optical lattice, and the laser pulse technique of Garrett et al used for acoustic phonons [1]. We show that it is possible to reduce the variance of atomic momentum to a value as low as the recoil momentum. Consequently, cooling to recoil energy can be achieved.
We present a new technique for cooling atoms below the photon recoil temperature. Free expansion and a subsequent application of a pulsed potential narrows the momentum distribution provided the atoms were initially well localized. Time scales for this cooling mechanism are shorter than those for other techniques. We give the one dimensional results for quantum and classical distributions of atoms initially held in an optical lattice or a dipole trap. The pulsed lattice potential is the same as that used in the recent atom optics realization of the quantum delta kicked rotor.
Twelve years ago, Richart Slusher and his colleagues at AT&T Bell Labs produced light whose noise was below the vacuum quantum fluctuations, at least in part of the signal. Since then, researchers have been trying to squeeze the uncertainties out of other systems as well. So far they have succeeded in quieting a classical mechanical oscillator and both classical and nonclassical states of a vibrating, trapped ion. Now comes a report of squeezed phonons: By striking a crystal with a femtosecond laser pulse, a group at the University of Michigan believes it has excited an acoustic mode whose variance falls below the standard quantum limit. So far, the noise has been reduced by only 0.01% (the earliest experiments on optical squeezing yielded 20%), but just the concept of squeezed phonons has intrigued many observers.
Optical lattices are periodic arrangements of laser cooled atoms trapped in potentials created by the interference of multiple laser beams. In this dissertation, we describe a series of experiments performed using optical lattices that exploit the coherence of atoms and we also look at new ways to cool the atoms. With a sudden shift of the optical lattice, atomic wavepackets can be created that evolve much like a classical particle. Using a photon redistribution technique, we have characterized the oscillation of wavepackets in the anharmonic potential wells. Atoms will quantum mechanically tunnel between lattice sites with a sufficiently shallow potential. Due to the structure of the optical lattices that are used, while the atom is tunneling, its internal angular momentum state must change. We use this change to detect and characterize the tunneling. The change in internal state leads to the formation of a new potential that acts on the atom, which is known as a gauge potential, which does not depend on the light intensity, but depends only on the geometry of the lattice. We have for the first time measured and characterized this gauge potential. Finally, by randomly modulating the lattice potential, we have demonstrated that tunneling can be suppressed. We have shown that an enhancement of the Sisyphus cooling process, which localizes atoms in the wells of an optical lattice, is possible using a bichromatic standing wave. A time of flight technique is used to verify the cooling improvement. We combine the techniques developed in these experiments and apply them to the cooling of the trapped atoms using a feedback mechanism, which is analogous to the well known technique of stochastic cooling in the field of beam physics. Lastly, we have laid the theoretical basis for using the ponderomotive force to create optical lattices for laser cooled Rydberg atoms. Rydberg atoms are attractive because of their many extreme properties, and the ability to trap Rydberg atoms into lattice sites will increase the range of experiments and measurements that can be made with them.
We study a possibility of laser cooling of 24 Mg atoms in deep optical lattice formed by intense off-resonant laser field in a presence of cooling field resonant to narrow (3 s 3 s ) 1 S 0 → (3 s 3 p ) 3 P 1 (λ = 457 nm) optical transition. For description of laser cooling with taking into account quantum recoil effects we consider two quantum models. The first one is based on direct numerical solution of quantum kinetic equation for atom density matrix and the second one is simplified model based on decomposition of atom density matrix over vibration states in the lattice wells. We search cooling field intensity and detuning for minimum cooling energy and fast laser cooling.
Summary form only given. High-brightness sources of cold atoms prepared by laser cooling have many applications in precision experiments and Bose-Einstein condensation. While in optical molasses the temperature increases strongly with atomic density, tight confinement of atoms in the Lamb-Dicke regime in an optical lattice allows to extend laser cooling to higher atomic densities, and subsequent adiabatic release from the lattice can be used to convert the high local density into low kinetic energy at constant bulk density. For an initial temperature in the lattice that is smaller than the vibrational spacing, free-space temperatures near or below the recoil limit can be reached.
Summary form only given. The preparation of the quantum state of physical systems and its diagnostics by quantum-state reconstruction has been a subject of large progress in recent years. Various experiments have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of reconstructing the quantum state of optical fields, molecular vibrations, trapped ions, and matter waves. The impressive success in laser cooling of neutral atoms opens new possibilities for preparing quantum states of ensembles of atoms in optical lattices and also quantum computing. In this context, the diagnostics of the quantum state, would provide a very useful tool for studying the accuracy of prepared quantum states or exploring decoherence mechanisms. However, to our knowledge, a reconstruction method for optical lattices that accounts for typical features of optical lattice potentials such as anharmonicity and band structure, is not yet available. We propose such a method, that we think is relatively simple to implement, since only phase shifts of the lattice laser beams and measurements of the band populations in the lattice potential are needed. These techniques are feasible by use of electro/acousto-optical modulators and by measuring the momentum distribution of the atoms after adiabatically turning off the lattice lasers.