Multifrequency radiation pressure laser,isotope separation

Isotope separation by laser deflection of an atomic beam is limited in its efficiency by the accumulation of atoms in metastable states. This restriction can be removed with the use of lasers which excite metastable atoms to states from which spontaneous decay to the ground state is allowed. This is demonstrated in the separation of barium isotopes, where efficiency was improved from a lower limit of 70% to at least 83% using a second laser. Efficiency approaching 100% can be achieved in barium with a second laser but the required wavelength is not available.     

冷原子穿越激光束的量子隧穿时间

原子通过激光冷却技术能够被制备在低温状态，这时冷原子云会展现出量子力学的波动性.研究了一束冷原子入射到一个蓝失谐的激光束上所表现出的量子力学隧穿效应.蓝失谐的激光束相对于冷原子而言等效于一个量子力学势垒.根据二能级模型，在理论上分析了具有内部结构的原子矢量物质波穿过激光束的量子力学反射与透射，特别是对原子穿越激光束所需的时间——量子隧穿时间进行了详细的研究.量子力学波动性使得冷原子穿越一个激光束时明显地展现出与经典粒子(热原子)不同的结果. 关键词： 冷原子 原子光学 量子隧穿     

激光冷却获得高亮度的亚稳态惰性气体原子束和原子阱

高强度的亚稳态惰性原子束流在原子分子物理实验研究中具有广泛的应用.使用射频电离方法和激光横向冷却技术制备了高强度的亚稳态氪原子束流,并使用数值模拟方法对横向冷却激光场中的原子径迹进行了分析.通过激光诱导荧光光谱方法测量原子束的束流特性,结果显示,横向冷却后在束流源下游230 cm处的原子束流强度达1.6atoms/(s*sr),束流强度提高了两个量级.利用这种高强度原子束流,我们成功囚禁了1.3×10¹⁰个亚稳态⁸⁴Kr原子,同时冷原子装载速率达到了3.0×10¹¹atoms/s;并利用该装置成功地实现了高亮度的亚稳态氩原子束和原子阱. 关键词： 横向冷却 原子束 原子阱 惰性气体     

激光减速原子束频标的建议

本文提出一个激光减速的碱金属原子束频标的方案。用共振激光束对原子束同时进行减速和选态,使原子速率降到10m/s以下,而光抽运作用使原子自动集中到基态超精细结构中具有最大磁量子数的塞曼子能级上。为避免重力场中束轨迹下垂,用偏转磁铁或多束激光使束由水平转成垂直向上,然后用级联磁共振使原子过渡到频标所需的m_F=0能级。利用原子上升和重力场中自由下落两次通过单个微波谐振腔而取得Ramsey共振信号,线宽约为¹Hz。信号用另一束激光检测。予期这种频标的稳定度和准确度可比现有束型频标提高一个数量级以上。文中详细讨论了激光减速和选态的方法,克服横向加热效应的措施,实现级联磁共振的办法,以及获得垂直束装置的设计等。     

铷原子热蒸气中强非线性效应产生激光模式图样的实验研究

研究了具有高斯横向分布的连续激光束单次通过铷原子蒸气后,在近共振附近铷原子蒸气中,由强的非线性克尔效应导致激光分裂成细丝的现象,并且这些细丝的衍射图样在远场通过相干叠加,可以形成具有规则结构的斑图模式.实验上研究了输入光功率,铷泡温度和抽运激光频率相对于⁸⁵Rb原子D₂线的不同失谐位置等因素对斑图模式的影响.由于铷原子的超精细能级结构,在铷原子蒸气中同时存在与三阶非线性效应相关的四波混频现象,通过扫描探测光的频率同时观察到具有斯托克斯和反斯托克斯光子的拉曼增益现象. 关键词： 铷原子蒸气 克尔效应 自聚焦 斑图     

Isotope separation by laser deflection of an atomic beam

Separation of isotopes of barium has been accomplished by laser deflection of a single isotopic component of an atomic beam. With a tunable narrow linewidth dye laser, small differences in absorption frequency of different barium isotopes on the 6s^{2 1}S₀₋ 6s6p¹P₁ 5536 Å resonance were exploited to deflect atoms of a single isotopic component of an atomic beam through an angle large enough to physically separate them from the atomic beam. It is shown that the principal limitation on separation efficiency, the fraction of the desired isotopic component which can be separated, is determined by the branching ratio from the excited state into metastable states. In barium, repeated absorptions and emissions on the 5536 Å transition eventually result in decay from the 6s6p¹P₁ state to the metastable 6s5d¹D₂ state. This was observed to occur for all but 3% of the¹³⁸Ba atoms. As a result, the efficiency of separation was about 0.7 for the 8 mrad atomic beam divergence employed. (Throughput was nearly 1 mg/day. No attempt was made to maximize this value.) The isotopic purity of the separated atoms was measured to be in excess of 0.9, limited only by instrumental uncertainty. The effects of near resonant atomic scattering and excitation exchange on isotopic purity are considered. Work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Energy Research & Development Administration.     

Loading of a krypton magneto-optical trap with two hollow laser beams in a Zeeman slower

A significant enhancement in the number of cold atoms in an atomic-beam-loaded magneto-optical trap (MOT) for metastable krypton atoms is observed when hollow laser beams are used in a Zeeman slower instead of a Gaussian laser beam. In the Zeeman slower setup, a combination of two hollow laser beams, i.e., a variable-diameter hollow beam generated using a pair of axicon lenses superimposed on a fixed-diameter hollow beam, has been used to reduce the longitudinal velocity of the atoms in the atomic beam below the capture speed of the MOT. The observed enhancement in the number of atoms in the MOT is attributed to reduced destruction of the atom cloud in the MOT and increased cooling of the off-axis atoms in the atomic beam, resulting from the use of hollow beams in the Zeeman slower.     

Giant optical nonlinearity of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate and low-threshold bistability

The polarization of an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate weakly excited by laser radiation at a nearly resonance frequency is determined. The coefficient of nonlinearity (cubic in field) in the refractive index of the condensate is calculated for the slow decay mode due to the spontaneous emission of excited atoms, as well as for the stationary mode, when the loss of atoms is compensated by the injection of atoms into the trap. In both cases, the cubic nonlinearity coefficients of the condensate are several orders of magnitude larger than the corresponding values for known nonlinear media. The conditions for observing hysteresis in an interferometer containing the condensate in the stationary state in the presence of an incident laser beam are specified.     

Continuous transfer and laser guiding between two cold atom traps

We have demonstrated and modeled a simple and efficient method to transfer atoms from a first Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) to a second one. Two independent setups, with cesium and rubidium atoms respectively, have shown that a high power and slightly diverging laser beam optimizes the transfer between the two traps when its frequency is red-detuned from the atomic transition. This pushing laser extracts a continuous beam of slow and cold atoms out of the first MOT and also provides a guiding to the second one through the dipolar force. In order to optimize the transfer efficiency, the dependence of the atomic flux on the pushing laser parameters (power, detuning, divergence and waist) is investigated. The atomic flux is found to be proportional to the first MOT loading rate. Experimentally, the transfer efficiency reaches 70%, corresponding to a transfer rate up to 2.7×10⁸ atoms/s with a final velocity of 5.5 m/s. We present a simple analysis of the atomic motion inside the pushing–guiding laser, in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Interferometry with Ca atoms

Separated field excitation of a calcium atomic beam using four traveling laser fields represents two distinct atom interferometers utilizing the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms. Phase shifts between the atomic partial waves have been realized by phase shifts of the laser wave fields, by the ac-Stark shift, and by rotation of the interferometer (Sagnac effect). One particular interferometer can be selected by interaction of the atomic waves with extra laser fields. We furthermore report on the preparation of a laser cooled and deflected calcium atomic beam that can be utilized to largely increase the sensitivity of the interferometer.     

电子束激发原子对金属蒸发的影响

在原子蒸气激光同位素分离工程(AVLIS)中,金属受电子束的加热而熔化,并向真空蒸发,蒸气原子通过电子束的过程中,可能与电子发生非弹性碰撞,被激发到高能级.在膨胀的过程中,高能级的原子通过与原子的非弹性碰撞消激发,将原子内的电子能量转换为蒸气的平动能.为了分析电子束与原子作用对蒸气的密度、速度和温度等物理特性的影响,采样直接模拟蒙特卡罗法(DSMC)模拟钆原子蒸发过程.模拟结果表明,电子束与原子的作用使得原子蒸气的速度增加,密度减小,温度升高 关键词： 金属蒸发 AVLIS DSMC 电子枪     

原子束的速度选择激光偏转

在激光偏转原子束实验中若使激光频率适当失谐，并令光束稍许偏离正交方向，则可偏转热原子束中具有特写速度的原子群。本文给出了这一简单选择方法的理论和初步实验结果。     

All-optical ion generation for ion trap loading

We have investigated the all-optical generation of ions by photo-ionisation of atoms generated by pulsed laser ablation. A direct comparison between a resistively heated oven source and pulsed laser ablation is reported. Pulsed laser ablation with 10 ns Nd:YAG laser pulses is shown to produce large calcium flux, corresponding to atomic beams produced with oven temperatures greater than 650 K. For an equivalent atomic flux, pulsed laser ablation is shown to produce a thermal load more than one order of magnitude smaller than the oven source. The atomic beam distributions obey Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics with most probable speeds corresponding to temperatures greater than 2200 K. Below a threshold pulse fluence between 280 mJ/cm² and 330 mJ/cm², the atomic beam is composed exclusively of ground-state atoms. For higher fluences ions and excited atoms are generated.     

Optical pumping experiments using a cw dye laser with a narrow spectral output

An optical pumping experiment on the Na atoms of an atomic beam by means of a continuous wave dye laser is described. The atoms interact at two different regions with the laser beam. In the first region the atoms are optically pumped so that a Zeeman coherence in their substates is produced. In the second light beam the coherence is probed. Any changes in the phase of the eigenfunction of the atom through interaction in a magnetic field, or through collisions, or other effects occuring in the light free section can thus be sensitively detected. The possible applications of the set-up are discussed.     

Intense source of cold cesium atoms based on a two-dimensional magneto–optical trap with independent axial cooling and pushing

We report our studies on an intense source of cold cesium atoms based on a two-dimensional(2D) magneto–optical trap(MOT) with independent axial cooling and pushing.The new-designed source,proposed as 2D-HP MOT,uses hollow laser beams for axial cooling and a thin pushing laser beam to extract a cold atomic beam.With the independent pushing beam,the atomic flux can be substantially optimized.The total atomic flux maximum obtained in the 2D-HP MOT is4.02 × 1010atoms/s,increased by 60 percent compared to the traditional 2D+MOT in our experiment.Moreover,with the pushing power 10 μW and detuning 0Γ,the 2D-HP MOT can generate a rather intense atomic beam with the concomitant light shift suppressed by a factor of 20.The axial velocity distribution of the cold cesium beams centers at 6.8 m/s with an FMHW of about 2.8 m/s.The dependences of the atomic flux on the pushing power and detuning are studied in detail.The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical model.     

Intense stationary flow of cold atoms formed by laser deceleration of atomic beam

Applying an optimum configuration of atomic and laser beams, a powerful two-frequency laser and restriction of velocity diffusion permitted us to obtain an intense stationary flow of atoms with an effective temperature down to 1 K. The decelerated atomic beam intensity exceeds that of the initial atomic beam by more than 3 x 10³.     

Micro-optical realization of arrays of selectively addressable dipole traps: a scalable configuration for quantum computation with atomic qubits

We experimentally demonstrate novel structures for the realization of registers of atomic qubits: We trap neutral atoms in one- and two-dimensional arrays of far-detuned dipole traps obtained by focusing a red-detuned laser beam with a microfabricated array of microlenses. We are able to selectively address individual trap sites due to their large lateral separation of 125 microm. We initialize and read out different internal states for the individual sites. We also create two interleaved sets of trap arrays with adjustable separation, as required for many proposed implementations of quantum gate operations.     

Creation of atomic W state in a cavity by adiabatic passage

We propose two relatively robust schemes to generate controllable (deterministic) atomic W states of three Λ-like atoms interacting with an optical cavity and a laser beam. Losses due to atomic spontaneous emissions and to cavity decay are efficiently suppressed by employing adiabatic passage technique and appropriately designed atom-field couplings. In these schemes the three atoms traverse the cavity-mode and the laser beam and become entangled in the free space outside the cavity.     

Imaging an atomic beam using fluorescence

A fluorescence detection scheme is applied to image an atomic beam. Using two laser diodes as the sources of detection light and pumping light respectively, the fluorescence image of the atomic beam is then observed by a commercial CCD-camera, which is corresponding to the atomic state and velocity distribution. The detection scheme has a great utilization in the experiments of cold atoms and atomic optics.     

量子模型分析激光驻波原子透镜的像差

采用量子模型对近共振激光驻波原子透镜会聚Cr原子束、形成纳米量级光栅结构的物理过程进行数值模拟。为提高原子透镜的成像质量,对各种像差,如衍射像差、球差、色差、及原子束发散角、原子磁支能级、原子同位素等因素引起的像差进行了理论分析。模拟结果表明,相比粒子光学模型,量子模型能更加精确地描述原子会聚结果,且能解释原子在驻波光场中的衍射现象。在各种像差中,原子束发散角是最主要的因素,其影响大于衍射像差、球差、色差。原子的磁支能级、同位素等因素对像差影响很小,可以忽略不计。激光冷却准直原子束的方法可以减小束发散角引起的像差,压缩原子速度Vz分布范围的方法可以减小色差。