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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 39: Poster: Atomoptik

Q 39.3: Poster

Thursday, March 18, 1999, 16:30–18:30, PH

Atoms in the stray light of a surface plasmon — •Carsten Henkel¹, Richard Adams², Harald Gauck², Dominik Schneble², Tilman Pfau², Chris I. Westbrook³, and J. Mlynek² — ¹Institut für Physik, Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, D-14469 Potsdam — ²Fakultät für Physik, Universität Konstanz, Fach M696, D-78457 Konstanz — ³Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, B.P. 147, 91403 Orsay CEDEX, Frankreich

We study an atom mirror realized with the light field of a surface plasmon. Surface roughness scatters a fraction of the plasmon field into the vacuum. This stray light optically pumps atoms approaching the surface into unreflected states. We compute the spatial intensity distribution along the atomic trajectory and relate the fraction of lost atoms to the rms surface roughness. The stray light also distorts the optical potential of the atom mirror. An estimate of the corresponding nonspecularity of the atom bounce is given and compared to experimental results.