Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 34: Poster 1

Q 34.47: Poster

Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.I+II

New nanofiber based trapping schemes and their applications — •Daniel Reitz, Bernhard Albrecht, Rudolf Mitsch, Philipp Schneeweiss, and Arno Rauschenbeutel — VCQ, TU Wien – Atominstitut, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Wien, Austria

Optical nanofibers can be used for trapping and optically interfacing cold neutral atoms in the evanescent field surrounding the fiber. For this purpose, a red-detuned trapping field is sent through the nanofiber and creates an attractive light-induced potential. To avoid collisions with the fiber surface, an additional, repulsive force is required. In our recently demonstrated trapping scheme, we use a blue-detuned fiber-guided field for this purpose. Here, we discuss the alternative of employing the centrifugal force instead. We show that a stable trap can be obtained with a 500-nm diameter nanofiber when assuming that the atoms possess 600ℏ of angular momentum with respect to the fiber axis. We propose to load the trap by first loading the atoms into a two-color trap, followed by an adiabatic transformation of the potentials. Interestingly, the wave-packet dynamics of the atoms in the angular momentum trap should yield a direct experimental proof of the quantization of the angular momentum of the atomic motion around the fiber. In addition to this angular momentum trap, we propose to trap atoms in a double-helix potential. Contrary to helical potentials realized with freely propagating light fields, the double-helix parameters can be locally set by a varying fiber waist diameter.

We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Volkswagen Foundation and by the ESF.