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arXiv:quant-ph/0502180 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Velocity selection of ultra-cold atoms with Fabry–Perot laser devices: improvements and limits

A. Ruschhaupt, F.S. Delgado, Juan Gonzalo Muga

Published Jul 13, 2005• 11 citations
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Abstract

We discuss a method to select the velocities of ultra-cold atoms with a modified Fabry-Perot type of device made of two effective barriers and a well created, respectively, by blue and red detuned lasers. The laser parameters may be used to select the peak and width of the transmitted velocity window. In particular, lowering the central well provides a peak arbitrarily close to zero velocity having a minimum but finite width. The low-energy atomic scattering off this laser device is parameterized and approximate formulae are found to describe and explain its behaviour.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/38/15/007

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We discuss a method to select the velocities of ultra-cold atoms with a modified Fabry-Perot type of device made of two effective barriers and a well created, respectively, by blue and red detuned lasers. The laser parameters may be used to select the peak and width of the transmitted velocity window. In particular, lowering the central well provides a peak arbitrarily close to zero velocity having a minimum but finite width. The low-energy atomic scattering off this laser device is parameterized and approximate formulae are found to describe and explain its behaviour.
A procedure is proposed to control the average and width of the velocity distribution of ultra-cold atoms. The atoms are set initially in a bound state of an optical trap formed by an inner red detuned laser and an outer blue detuned laser. The bound state is later converted into a resonance by a suitable change of the laser intensities. An optimal time dependence of the switching process, between the sudden and adiabatic limits, adjusts the final translational energies to the Lorentzian shape of the resonance state.
We realize textbook experiments on Bose-Einstein condensate tunnelling through thin repulsive potential barriers. In particular, we demonstrate atom tunnelling though a single optical barrier in the quantum scattering regime where the De Broglie wavelength of the atoms is larger than the barrier width. Such a beam splitter can be used for atom interferometry and we study the case of two barriers creating an atomic Fabry-P{é}rot cavity. Technically, the velocity of the atoms is reduced thanks to the use of a 39K Bose-Einstein condensate with no interactions. The potential barriers are created optically and their width is tunable thanks to the use of a digital micro-mirror device. In addition, our scattering experiments enable in-situ characterization of the optical aberrations of the barrier optical system.
A procedure is proposed to prepare the average and width of the velocity distribution of ultracold atoms. The atoms are set initially in the ground state of an optical trap formed by an inner red-detuned-laser well and an outer blue-detuned-laser barrier. Then the well and barrier parameters are changed until the ground state becomes a Breit-Wigner tunneling resonance. An optimal time dependence of the switching process, between the sudden and adiabatic limits, adjusts the final translational energies of the leaking atoms to the Lorentzian distribution of the resonance state.
We discuss a velocity selection technique for obtaining cold atoms, in which all atoms below a certain energy are spatially selected from the surrounding atom cloud. Velocity selection can in some cases be more efficient than other cooling techniques for the preparation of ultracold atom clouds in one dimension. With quantum mechanical and classical simulations and theory we present a scheme using a dipole force barrier to select the coldest atoms from a magnetically trapped atom cloud. The dipole and magnetic potentials create a local minimum which traps the coldest atoms. A unique advantage of this technique is the sharp cut-off in the velocity distribution of the sample of selected atoms. Such a non-thermal distribution should prove useful for a variety of experiments, including proposed studies of atomic tunneling and scattering from quantum potentials. We show that when the rms size of the atom cloud is smaller than the local minimum in which the selected atoms are trapped, the velocity selection technique can be more efficient in 1-D than some common techniques such as evaporative cooling. For example, one simulation shows nearly 6% of the atoms retained at a temperature 100 times lower than the starting condition.