Abstract
We calculate the force of a near-resonant guided light field of an ultrathin optical fiber on a two-level atom. We show that, if the atomic dipole rotates in the meridional plane, the magnitude of the force of the guided light depends on the field propagation direction. The chirality of the force arises as a consequence of the directional dependencies of the Rabi frequency of the guided driving field and the spontaneous emission from the atom. This provides a unique method for controlling atomic motion in the vicinity of an ultrathin fiber.
Highlights
Applying controllable optical forces to atoms plays a central role in many areas of physics, in particular in laser cooling and trapping [1]
A common feature of cooling and trapping schemes for atoms in free space is that, since spontaneous emission is in a random direction and symmetric with respect to two opposite propagation directions, the average of the recoil over spontaneous emission events gives a zero net effect on the atomic momentum
We show that the directional dependencies of the Rabi frequency and the spontaneous emission rate lead to a significant chirality of the optical force
Summary
Applying controllable optical forces to atoms plays a central role in many areas of physics, in particular in laser cooling and trapping [1]. It has been shown that, for atoms near a nanofiber [3,4,5,6,7] or a flat surface [8], spontaneous emission may become asymmetric with respect to opposite propagation directions. Such directional spontaneous emission can modify the optical forces on atoms. The possibility of creating chiral forces acting on atoms holds significant potential in many areas of physics It would enable one, for example, to manipulate the transfer of photonic superposition states to atomic center-of-mass superposition states, opening the possibility of a new way of constructing atomic interferometers.
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