Dark Optical Lattice of Ring Traps for Cold Atoms

Emmanuel Courtade (1) , Olivier Houde (1) , Jean-François Clément (2, 1) , Philippe Verkerk (1) , Daniel Hennequin (1)

1 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523
2 laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Optique atomique

We propose a new geometry of optical lattice for cold atoms, namely a lattice made of a 1D stack of dark ring traps. It is obtained through the interference pattern of a standard Gaussian beam with a counter-propagating hollow beam obtained using a setup with two conical lenses. The traps of the resulting lattice are characterized by a high confinement and a filling rate much larger than unity, even if loaded with cold atoms from a MOT. We have implemented this system experimentally, and obtained a lattice of ring traps populated with typically 40 atoms per site with a life time of 30 ms. Applications in statistical physics, quantum computing and Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics are conceivable.

Mots clés: cold atoms; optical lattices; ring traps

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Autre [cond-mat.other]

Emmanuel Courtade, Olivier Houde, Jean-François Clément, Philippe Verkerk, Daniel Hennequin. Dark Optical Lattice of Ring Traps for Cold Atoms. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2006, 74, pp.031403(R). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.74.031403⟩. ⟨hal-00092344⟩