0000000000235321
AUTHOR
R. Mitsch
Dispersive optical interface based on nanofiber-trapped atoms.
We dispersively interface an ensemble of one thousand atoms trapped in the evanescent field surrounding a tapered optical nanofiber. This method relies on the azimuthally-asymmetric coupling of the ensemble with the evanescent field of an off-resonant probe beam, transmitted through the nanofiber. The resulting birefringence and dispersion are significant; we observe a phase shift per atom of $\sim$\,1\,mrad at a detuning of six times the natural linewidth, corresponding to an effective resonant optical density per atom of 0.027. Moreover, we utilize this strong dispersion to non-destructively determine the number of atoms.
Experiments with a fiber-based optical dipole trap for cold Cs-Atoms
Pulling a standard optical fiber to a diameter of less than the wavelength of the guided light causes the light field to project slightly over the fiber boundaries in form of an evanescent wave. The latter can be used for light-matter-interactions in the vicinity of the surface of the fiber and therefore allows to perform quantum optic experiments.
Nanofiber-based optical trapping of cold neutral atoms
We present experimental techniques and results related to the optimization and characterization of our nanofiber-based atom trap [Vetsch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 203603 (2010)]. The atoms are confined in an optical lattice which is created using a two-color evanescent field surrounding the optical nanofiber. For this purpose, the polarization state of the trapping light fields has to be properly adjusted. We demonstrate that this can be accomplished by analyzing the light scattered by the nanofiber. Furthermore, we show that loading the nanofiber trap from a magneto-optical trap leads to sub-Doppler temperatures of the trapped atomic ensemble and yields a sub-Poissonian distribution of…