Designing Neutral-Atom Nanotraps With Integrated Optical Waveguides

Published

April 1, 2002

Author(s)

J P. Burke, S G. Chu, Garnett W. Bryant, Carl J. Williams, Paul S. Julienne

Abstract

Integrated optical structures offer the intriguing potential of compact, reproducible waveguide arrays, rings, Y-junctions, etc, that could be used to design evanescent field traps to transport, store, and interact atoms in networks as complicated as any integrated optical waveguide circuit. We theoretically investigate three approaches to trapping atoms above linear integrated optical waveguides. A two-color scheme balances the decaying evanescent fields of red- and blue-detuned light to produce a potential minimum above the guide. A one-color surface trap proposal uses blue-detuned light and the attractive surface interaction to provide a potential minimum. A third proposal uses blue-detuned light in two guides positioned above and below one another. The atoms are confined to the dark spot in the vacuum gap between the guides. We find that all three approaches can be used to trap atoms in two- or three-dimensions with a few 10's of mW of laser power. We show that the dark spor guide is robust to light scatter and provides the most viable approach for constructing integrated optical circuits that could be used to transport and minipulate atoms in a controlled manner.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

65

Issue

No. 4

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

atom optics, optical potential, optical waveguides

Citation

Burke, J. , Chu, S. , Bryant, G. , Williams, C. and Julienne, P. (2002), Designing Neutral-Atom Nanotraps With Integrated Optical Waveguides, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 15, 2025)