Abstract

A 1-mm-diameter all-light atom guide capable of transporting ultracold atoms tens of centimeters with high efficiency is described. We made the atom tunnel, a dark hollow beam that is blue detuned from resonance, by passing a few tens of milliwatts of power from a ${\mathrm{TEM}}_{00}$ diode laser beam through an optical sequence composed of three axicons and a simple lens. We demonstrate transport of ${10}^8 \mathrm{Cs}$ atoms approximately 20 cm with minimal heating. We show that it is possible for one to control the direction and speed of the atoms in the tunnel by varying the detuning of the tunnel beam.

© 1999 Optical Society of America

Dark-hollow-beam guiding and splitting of a low-velocity atomic beam

Min Yan, Jianping Yin, and Yifu Zhu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 17(11) 1817-1820 (2000)

Doughnut-beam-induced Sisyphus cooling in atomic guiding and collimation

Jianping Yin and Yifu Zhu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 15(8) 2235-2239 (1998)

Atom trap in an axicon mirror

J. A. Kim, K. I. Lee, H. R. Noh, W. Jhe, and M. Ohtsu
Opt. Lett. 22(2) 117-119 (1997)

Optical detection of cold atoms without spontaneous emission

V. Savalli, G. Zs. K. Horvath, P. D. Featonby, L. Cognet, N. Westbrook, C. I. Westbrook, and A. Aspect
Opt. Lett. 24(22) 1552-1554 (1999)

Velocity-tunable magneto-optical-trap-based cold Cs atomic beam

He Wang and Walter F. Buell
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20(10) 2025-2030 (2003)