10 research outputs found
Cooling of a single atom in an optical trap inside a resonator
We present detailed discussions of cooling and trapping mechanisms for an
atom in an optical trap inside an optical cavity, as relevant to recent
experiments. The interference pattern of cavity QED and trapping fields in
space makes the trapping wells distinguishable from one another. This adds
considerable flexibility to creating effective trapping and cooling conditions
and to detection possibilities. Friction and diffusion coefficients are
calculated in and beyond the low excitation limit and full 3-D simulations of
the quasiclassical motion of a Cs atom are performed.Comment: One more figure and one more autho
Cold atoms in a high-Q ring-cavity
We report the confinement of large clouds of ultra-cold 85-Rb atoms in a
standing-wave dipole trap formed by the two counter-propagating modes of a
high-Q ring-cavity. Studying the properties of this trap we demonstrate loading
of higher-order transverse cavity modes and excite recoil-induced resonances.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Trapping and cooling single atoms with far-off resonance intracavity doughnut modes
We investigate cooling and trapping of single atoms inside an optical cavity
using a quasi-resonant field and a far-off resonant mode of the Laguerre-Gauss
type. The far-off resonant doughnut mode provides an efficient trapping in the
case when it shifts the atomic internal ground and excited state in the same
way, which is particularly useful for quantum information applications of
cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems. Long trapping times can be
achieved, as shown by full 3-D simulations of the quasi-classical motion inside
the resonator.Comment: 18 pages, 18 figures, RevTe
Trapping of Single Atoms with Single Photons in Cavity QED
Two recent experiments have reported the trapping of individual atoms inside
optical resonators by the mechanical forces associated with single photons
[Hood et al., Science 287, 1447 (2000) and Pinkse et al., Nature 404, 365
(2000)]. Here we analyze the trapping dynamics in these settings, focusing on
two points of interest. Firstly, we investigate the extent to which
light-induced forces in these experiments are distinct from their free-space
counterparts. Secondly, we explore the quantitative features of the resulting
atomic motion and how these dynamics are mapped onto variations of the
intracavity field. Not surprisingly, qualitatively distinct atomic dynamics
arise as the coupling and dissipative rates are varied. For the experiment of
Hood et al., we show that atomic motion is largely conservative and is
predominantly in radial orbits transverse to the cavity axis. A comparison with
the free-space theory demonstrates that the fluctuations of the dipole force
are suppressed by an order of magnitude. This effect is based upon the
Jaynes-Cummings eigenstates of the atom-cavity system and represents
qualitatively new physics for optical forces at the single-photon level. By
contrast, even in a regime of strong coupling in the experiment of Pinkse et
al., there are only small quantitative distinctions between the free-space
theory and the quantum theory, so it is not clear that description of this
experiment as a novel single-quantum trapping effect is necessary. The atomic
motion is strongly diffusive, leading to an average localization time
comparable to the time for an atom to transit freely through the cavity and to
a reduction in the ability to infer aspects of the atomic motion from the
intracavity photon number.Comment: 19 pages, 22 figure files, REVTEX, corrected spelling, LaTeX now
produces postscript which includes figures, minor changes to figures. Final
version to be published in Physical Review A, expanded summary of results in
introduction, minor changes to figures and tex