Quantum feedback control of atomic motion in an optical cavity

We study quantum feedback cooling of atomic motion in an optical cavity. We design a feedback algorithm that can cool the atom to the ground state of the optical potential with high efficiency despite the nonlinear nature of this problem. An important ingredient is a simplified state-estimation algorithm, necessary for a real-time implementation of the feedback loop. We also describe the critical role of parity dynamics in the cooling process and present a simple theory that predicts the achievable steady-state atomic energies.     

Laser cooling in an optical shaker

We propose a novel generic approach to laser cooling based on the nonresonant interactions of atoms and molecules with optical standing waves experiencing sudden phase jumps. The technique, termed "optical shaking," combines the elements of stochastic cooling and Sisyphus cooling. An optical signal that measures the instantaneous force applied by the standing wave on the ensemble of particles is used as feedback to determine the phase jumps. This guarantees a drift towards lower energies and higher phase-space density without the loss of particles typical of evaporative cooling.     

Compact, filtered diode laser system for precision spectroscopy

Stable, narrow-linewidth optical sources are necessary in modern atomic physics. An appealing approach to achieving approximately 10 kHz frequency stability is optical feedback. We have designed a compact external cavity diode laser with optical feedback to a filter cavity mounted on a single baseplate and enclosed inside a vacuum sealed box. The design was implemented for three wavelengths addressing the 422 nm cooling, 1091 nm repumping, and 674 nm clock transition lines of Sr(+). We are able to cool a single, trapped strontium ion to approximately 2 mK and observe motional sidebands of the 5S(1/2) <--> 4D(5/2) transition.     

Feedback-controlled nonresonant laser cooling

We present a new approach to nonresonant laser deceleration and cooling of atoms based on their interaction with a bistable optical cavity. The cooling mechanism presents a photonic version of Sisyphus cooling, in which the conservative motion of atoms is interrupted by sudden transitions between two stable states of the cavity mode. The mechanical energy is extracted due to the hysteretic nature of those transitions. The bistable character of the cavity may be achieved by an external feedback loop, or by means of nonlinear intracavity optical elements. In contrast to the conventional cavity cooling, in which atoms experience a viscoustype force, bistable cavity cooling imitates “dry friction” and stops atoms much faster. Based on this novel approach, we explore the prospects of using optical bistability for efficient radiation pressure cooling of micromechanical devices that are modeled as a Fabry-Perot resonator with one fixed and one oscillating mirror. In all cases, analytical results are presented, supported by realistic numerical examples.     

Enhanced cooling of a V-type three-level atom in an optical cavity

We have studied theoretically and numerically the enhanced cooling of a V-type three-level atom in a high-finesse optical cavity and shown that the cooling rate can be increased by one order of magnitude over that of a two-level atom, and the momentum amplitude tends to a stationary state much smaller than that of a two-level atom. We have further shown that the cooling rate can be significantly improved by using feedback and a time-dependent pump.     

Quantum limits of feedback cooling in optical lattices

A quantum-mechanical analysis of feedback cooling [see Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 153002 (2005)] of atoms trapped in a far-off-resonant optical lattice is presented. The model considered is valid for ultralow energies of atoms, thus, allowing for the study of an ultimate cooling limit. The influence of the measurement-induced noise and feedback-induced atom-atom correlations on the cooling efficiency is discussed. It is shown that there are regimes where the quantum noise can be effectively compensated for.     

Cooling antiprotons in an ion trap

The measurement of the inertial mass of the antiproton and proposed antihydrogen formation experiments require antiprotons stored in ion traps, cooled to very low (4K) temperatures. Techniques to cool the trapped antiprotons from energies around 1 keV are discussed. Coupling to an external circuit produces cooling times of order 10³ s, which may be reduced somewhat with negative feedback. Adiabatic reduction of the trapping potential produces significant cooling when the particle energies are substantially less than the well depth. Most promising is cooling via energy-transferring collisions to a cooled cloud of electrons simultaneously trapped with the antiprotons. Electron cooling times are of order 1 s, and strongly depend on electron number and density.     

Optical dilution and feedback cooling of a gram-scale oscillator to 6.9 mK

We report on the use of a radiation pressure induced restoring force, the optical spring effect, to optically dilute the mechanical damping of a 1 g suspended mirror, which is then cooled by active feedback (cold damping). Optical dilution relaxes the limit on cooling imposed by mechanical losses, allowing the oscillator mode to reach a minimum temperature of 6.9 mK, a factor of approximately 40 000 below the environmental temperature. A further advantage of the optical spring effect is that it can increase the number of oscillations before decoherence by several orders of magnitude. In the present experiment we infer an increase in the dynamical lifetime of the state by a factor of approximately 200.     

双光腔耦合下机械振子的基态冷却

机械振子的基态冷却是腔量子光力学中的基本问题之一.所谓的基态冷却就是让机械振子的稳态声子数小于1.本文通过光压涨落谱和稳态声子数研究双光腔光力系统(标准单光腔光力系统中引入第二个光腔,并与第一个光腔直接耦合)的基态冷却.首先得到系统的有效哈密顿量,然后给出朗之万方程和速率方程,最后分别给出空腔和原子腔的光压涨落谱、冷却率和稳态声子数.通过光压涨落谱、冷却率和稳态声子数表达式,重点讨论空腔时机械振子的基态冷却,发现当满足最佳参数条件(机械振子的冷却跃迁速率对应光压涨落谱的最大值,而加热跃迁速率对应光压涨落谱的最小值)时,机械振子可以被冷却到稳态声子数足够少.此外分析:当辅助腔内注入原子系综时,若参数选择恰当可能更利于基态冷却.     

Effect of optical feedback on a VCSEL TDLAS

This paper describes the effects of optical feedback on the sensitivity of VCSEL tunable-diode laser spectroscopy (TDLS). Three VCSELs, emitting at different wavelengths in the near-infrared, were used. A TDLS system, subjected to optical feedback, exhibited a common signal-to-noise ratio profile for all three lasers. A catastrophic degradation of TDLS sensitivity occurred when feedback exceeded a level which we associate with coherence collapse. The TDLS system had a CH₄ minimum detection limit of 7.5 ppmm without optical feedback. Optical feedback of less than ten percent reduced this sensitivity by two orders of magnitude. This reduction of system sensitivity was accompanied by a second-harmonic absorption signal baseline shift which degraded the system accuracy.     

The effects of external optical feedback on the power penalty of DFB-LD modules for 2.5Gbs−1 optical transmission systems

We report the effects of external optical feedback on the power penalty of commercial distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) modules for 2.5Gbs–1 optical transmission systems. External optical feedback presented to the DFB-LD modules causes the excitation of external cavity modes, resulting in increased relative intensity noise (RIN) and intensity noise ripples at low frequency region below 500MHz. For a 10–10 bit error rate (BER), the minimum power penalty is as much as 1.25dB for a feedback ratio of –8.8dB. An excess power penalty of 0.5dB per 3dB increase in the feedback ratio was also empirically obtained. We suggest that optical isolators in 2.5Gbs–1 DFB-LD modules used in conventional optical transmission systems or WDM systems must have a peak isolation ratio of better than 54.5dB, instead of the previously recommended 30dB, for negligible power penalty induced by external optical feedback.     

Effective sideband cooling in an ytterbium optical lattice clock

Sideband cooling is a key technique for improving the performance of optical atomic clocks by preparing cold atoms and single ions into the ground vibrational state. In this work, we demonstrate detailed experimental research on pulsed Raman sideband cooling in a $^{171}$Yb optical lattice clock. A sequence comprised of interleaved 578 nm cooling pulses resonant on the 1st-order red sideband and 1388 nm repumping pulses is carried out to transfer atoms into the motional ground state. We successfully decrease the axial temperature of atoms in the lattice from 6.5 μK to less than 0.8 μK in the trap depth of 24 μK, corresponding to an average axial motional quantum number $\langle n_z\rangle<0.03$. Rabi oscillation spectroscopy is measured to evaluate the effect of sideband cooling on inhomogeneous excitation. The maximum excitation fraction is increased from 0.8 to 0.86, indicating an enhancement in the quantum coherence of the ensemble. Our work will contribute to improving the instability and uncertainty of Yb lattice clocks.     

Quantum feedback cooling of two trapped ions

We present a sub-Doppler cooling scheme of a two-trapped-ion crystal by quantum feedback control method. In the scheme, we obtain the motional information by continuously measuring the spontaneous emission photons from one single ion of the crystal, and then apply a feedback force to cool the whole chain down.We derive the cooling dynamics of the cooling scheme using quantum feedback theory and quantum regression theorem. The result shows that with experimentally achievable parameters, our scheme can achieve lower temperature and faster cooling rate than Doppler cooling.     

A laser feedback interferometer with an oscillating feedback mirror

A method is proposed to solve the problem of direction discrimination for laser feedback interferometers.By vibrating the feedback mirror with a small-amplitude and high-frequency sine wave,laser intensity is modulated accordingly.The modulation amplitude can be extracted using a phase sensitive detector(PSD).When the feedback mirror moves,the PSD output shows a quasi-sine waveform similar to a laser intensity interference fringe but with a phase difference of approximately ±π/2.If the movement direction of the feedback mirror changes,the phase difference sign reverses.Therefore,the laser feedback interferometer offers a potential application in displacement measurement with a resolution of 1/8 wavelength and in-time direction discrimination.Without using optical components such as polarization beam splitters and wave plates,the interferometer is very simple,easy to align,and less costly.     

Rb原子的激光囚禁

用饱和吸收光谱法对二极管激光器进行稳频,使激光器的有效线宽小于１ＭＨｚ,并利用声光调制器使激光的频移量得到控制,满足了激光冷却与因禁原子对激光频率生和频 量的 Ｒｂ原子的激光囚禁。     

Cooling of a Gram-Scale Cantilever Flexure to 70 mK with a Servo-Modified Optical Spring

A series of recent articles have presented results demonstrating optical cooling of macroscopic objects, highlighting the importance of this phenomenon for investigations of macroscopic quantum mechanics and its implications for thermal noise in gravitational wave detectors. In this Letter, we present a measurement of the off-resonance suspension thermal noise of a 1 g oscillator, and we show that it can be cooled to just 70 mK. The cooling is achieved by using a servo to impose a phase delay between oscillator motion and optical force. A model is developed to show how optical rigidity and optical cooling can be interchangeable using this technique.     

玻色-费米气体量子简并光学偶极阱的设计

实现了将预冷却(温度约为1～2μK)的87 Rb和40 K原子装载到远红失谐的光学偶极力阱中,继而利用逐步降低光强的方法对其进行蒸发冷却,获得了87 Rb原子的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚(BEC),并用协同冷却的方法得到了40 K原子的量子简并(DFG)。实验上通过光纤传输远红失谐激光束降低了光束指向性的抖动,又利用光强反馈伺服系统抑制远红失谐激光的强度抖动,提高了获得玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚和简并费米气体的重复性和稳定性。实验上得到玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚的原子数达8.48×105个,简并费米气体的原子数量约为3.34×106个。     

A fibre grating DFB laser for generation of optical microwave signal

A distributed feedback fibre laser is realised with a phase-shifted fibre Bragg grating. Dual-mode operation is obtained by means of linear birefringence for heterodyne generation of optical microwave signal. The two modes, operating in the same cavity produce a beat signal with exceptionally low-phase noise. The linewidth of the resulting microwave signal obtained is less than 1 kHz.     

极微弱脉冲光强度稳定控制技术

实际测量输出光强度随时间变化的随机过程是一个慢过程.将光衰减过程分为固定衰减和可变衰减两部分,设计制作了一种实时监控系统,通过调节自动反馈控制可变衰减器,使得末端固定衰减器的输出脉冲中,单光子脉冲出现的概率等于17.6%,多光子脉冲出现的概率低于2%,保持平均光子输出速率波动不大于0.1%,为量子密码术提供了稳定的准单光子源.     

Continuous loading of a conservative potential trap from an atomic beam

We demonstrate the fast accumulation of 52Cr atoms in a conservative potential from a guided atomic beam. Without laser cooling on a cycling transition, a dissipative step involving optical pumping allows us to load atoms at a rate of 2×10(7) s(-1) in the trap. Within less than 100 ms we reach the collisionally dense regime, from which we produce a Bose-Einstein condensate with subsequent evaporative cooling. This constitutes a new approach to degeneracy where Bose-Einstein condensation can be reached without a closed cycling transition, provided that a slow beam of particles can be produced.