Nanoscale ``Dark State'' Optical Potentials for Cold Atoms

Nanoscale “Dark State” Optical Potentials for Cold Atoms

M. Łącki, M. A. Baranov, H. Pichler, and P. Zoller

Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 233001 – Published 30 November 2016

Abstract

We discuss the generation of subwavelength optical barriers on the scale of tens of nanometers, as conservative optical potentials for cold atoms. These arise from nonadiabatic corrections to Born-Oppenheimer potentials from dressed “dark states” in atomic $Λ$ configurations. We illustrate the concepts with a double layer potential for atoms obtained from inserting an optical subwavelength barrier into a well generated by an off-resonant optical lattice, and discuss bound states of pairs of atoms interacting via magnetic dipolar interactions. The subwavelength optical barriers represent an optical “Kronig-Penney” potential. We present a detailed study of the band structure in optical Kronig-Penney potentials, including decoherence from spontaneous emission and atom loss to open “bright” channels.

Received 26 July 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.233001

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atom & ion trapping & guiding Cold gases in optical lattices

Atoms Dipolar gases Molecules Ultracold gases

Adiabatic approximation

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

Authors & Affiliations

M. Łącki^1,2, M. A. Baranov^1,2, H. Pichler^1,2,3,4, and P. Zoller^1,2

¹Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
²Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
³ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
⁴Physics Department, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA