微重力环境下冷原子物理及其应用

文章介绍了国际上微重力环境下冷原子物理及其应用的研究工作：空间原子钟、原子干涉仪、超冷原子物理和建议中的广义相对论的探索。文中简要介绍了中国科学院上海光学精密机械研究所在微重力环境下所进行的空间原子钟、玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚和原子芯片等研究工作。     

Light-shift induced by two unbalanced spontaneous decay rates in EIT (CPT) spectroscopies under Ramsey pulse excitation

Light shift is important and inevitably affects the long-term stability of an atomic clock. In this work, considering two unbalanced branches of the spontaneous decay rate in a three-level system, we studied the frequency shifts of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) and coherent population trapping (CPT) clocks operating under the pulse sequence regime by numerically solving the Liouville density matrix equations. The results show that the frequency shifts are larger when the two branches of spontaneous emission rate are not equal compared to the equal case. In addition, in EIT-Ramsey, the effect of the unbalanced branches of the spontaneous decay rate and relaxations of low-energy states on the frequency shift is greater than that of Rabi frequency. In CPT-Ramsey, the relaxations of low-energy states play a dominant role in frequency shift.     

Transport of ions through a （6,6） carbon nanotube under electric fields

The transport of water and ions through carbon nanotubes （CNTs） is crucial in nanotechnology and biotechnology. Previous investigation indicated that the ions can hardly pass through （6,6） CNTs due to their hydrated shells. In the present study, utilizing molecular dynamics simulation, it is shown that the energy barrier mainly originating from the hydrated water molecules could be overcome by applying an electric field large enough in the CNT axis direction. Potential of mean force is calculated to show the reduction of energy barrier when the electric field is present for （Na＋, K＋, C1 ） ions. Consequently, ionic flux through （6,6） CNTs can be found once the electric field becomes larger than a threshold value. The variation of the coordination numbers of ions at different locations from the bulk to the center of the CNT is also explored to elaborate this dynamic process. The thresholds of the electric field are different for Na＋, K＋, and CI- due to their characteristics. This consequence might be potentially applied in ion selectivity in the future.     

Magneto optical trap for neutral mercury atoms

Due to its low sensitivity to blackbody radiation, neutral mercury is a good candidate for the most accurate optical lattice clock. Here we report the observation of cold mercury atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Because of the high vapor pressure at room temperature, the mercury source and the cold pump were cooled down to 40℃ and 70 ℃, respectively, to keep the science chamber in an ultra-high vacuum of 6×10 9 Pa. Limited by the power of the UV cooling laser, the one beam folded MOT configuration was adopted, and 1.5×10 5 Hg-202 atoms were observed by fluorescence detection.     

Water structures inside and outside single-walled carbon nanotubes under perpendicular electric field

The structures of water inside and outside(6,6),(8,8), and(10,10) singlewalled carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs) under an electric field perpendicular to the tube axis are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that dipole reorientation induced by electric field plays a significant role on the structures of confined water inside and outside SWCNTs. Inside SWCNTs, the average water occupancy and the average number of hydrogen bonds(H-bonds) per water molecule decrease as the electric intensity increases. Because the field intensity is sufciently strong, the initial water structures inside the SWCNTs are destroyed, and the isolated water clusters are found. Outside SWCNTs, the azimuthal distributions of the density and the average number of H-bonds per water molecule around the solid walls become more and more asymmetric as the electric intensity increases. The percentages of water molecules involved in 0–5 H-bonds for all the three types of SWCNTs under diferent field intensities are displayed. The results show that those water molecules involved with most H-bonds are the most important to hold the original structures. When the electric field direction is parallel with the original preferred orientation, the density and the H-bond connections in water will be increased; when the electric field direction is perpendicular to the original preferred orientation, the density and the H-bond connections in water will be decreased.     

Observation of the ~1S_0-~3P_0 optical clock transition in cold ~(199)Hg atoms

We report on the observation of the highly forbidden ~1S_0–~3P_0 optical clock transition in laser-cooled ~(199) Hg atoms.More than 95% depletion of cold ~(199)Hg atoms is detected in the magneto-optical trap. Using the free-of-field detection method, the AC Stark shift from the cooling laser is removed from the in-field spectroscopy. At low-power clock laser pumping, the linewidth of the clock spectroscopy is approximately 450 k Hz(full width at half-maximum), which corresponds to a Doppler broadening at the atom temperature of 60 μK. We determine the ~1S_0–~3P_0transition frequency to be 1,128,575,290.819(14) MHz by referencing with a hydrogen maser and measuring with a fiber optical frequency comb. Moreover, a weak Doppler-free signal is observed.     

电光晶体调谐的外腔反馈半导体激光器

报道一种用电光晶体实现快速调谐和凋制激光频率的方法.在Littrow型外腔反馈半导体激光中插入LiNbO3晶体,利用LiNbO3晶体的电光效应,通过改变晶体电压来调节激光器的有效腔长,可以对激光频率进行快速的调谐和调制.采用该方法,自制外腔反馈半导体激光器的调谐频率可达到2 kHz,它的调谐范围为350 MHz,激光频率调谐系数约为1.06 MHz/V,用饱和吸收光谱观测频率调谐的效果.快速激光频率调制可以应用在稳频技术上,将外腔反馈半导体激光器调制在5～100 kHz频率下,均获得了87Rb原子D2线的饱和吸收光谱的色散信号,并实现了激光频率在饱和吸收峰上的长期稳定.     

中性汞原子磁光阱装载率的优化

量子投影噪声是影响光晶格钟的一个重要参数,提高磁光阱中装载率有利于降低量子投影噪声,可提升光晶格钟的性能.针对实验所用的汞原子单腔磁光阱,本文分析并计算了磁光阱中汞原子受力情况和一维运动规律,在此基础上用随机数方法对磁光阱中汞原子三维装载进行了数值计算,获得了磁光阱中的稳态原子数,研究了磁光阱的冷却激光的光强、失谐量以及磁场梯度等参数对稳态原子数的影响,得出了获得最优装载率的实验参数.涉及的计算方法和结论对汞原子光晶格钟的实验设计具有参考价值.