A novel array of surface hollow optical micro-traps

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new scheme to form an array of surface hollow optical micro-traps for cold atoms (or molecules) by using a phase grating with four phase steps and an array of microlens, study the intensity distribution of 2D array of surface hollow optical micro-traps, and calculate the corresponding optical potential for cold 85Rb atoms, and discuss some potential applications of our hollow micro-trap array in atom and molecule optics. Our study shows that when our grating-lens system is illuminated by YAG laser with a power of 1W, a 2D array of surface hollow optical traps with 104 micro-wells will be generated in an area of 1cm2. Each optical trap has some novel characteristics, such as smaller trapping volume, higher effective intensity and its intensity gradient. The corresponding optical potential for trapped 85Rb atoms can reach 190μK, which is high enough to trap cold atoms or cold molecules, and can be used to realize an all-optical atomic and molecular Bose-Einstein condensations, even to prepare novel optical lattices, and so on.