Atom trapping using superimposed Bessel beams

Abstract

Hollow beams have attracted increasing interest in the field of laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms. Several groups have used different techniques to generate dark hollow beams (DHB). However, the experimental setups and techniques employed in most of the investigations so far, are rather sophisticated and need usually more than one beam. On the other hand, Bessel beams are easily obtained in practice with a quite simple experimental arrangement. Investigations on the dynamical interplay between superimposed Bessel beams (SBB) has been demonstrated recently theoretically and experimentally. In this paper, we propose a new and simple experimental scheme to produce a dark hollow beam for atom trapping purposes, using the interference pattern originated from two superimposed Bessel beams. We illustrate the propagation of a superposition of two Bessel beams with same amplitude and phase, generated by a quite simple setup made with two annular slits and a lens.