Constructing a light-field distribution for the laser guiding of atoms in photonic crystals

Abstract

Numerical analysis based on the finite-difference time-domain simulation of the light-field distribution in a defect mode of a two-dimensional photonic crystal demonstrates that, with an appropriate geometry of the defect in the photonic-crystal lattice, a potential permitting the laser guiding of atoms with blue-detuned radiation can be produced. The light field in a defect mode of a photonic crystal may decrease by nearly five orders of magnitude on the subwavelength spatial scale, providing a very high localization degree of atoms, which are pushed to the center of the defect due to the dipole force. Simulations of atomic-field distribution and trajectories of atoms in a defect mode of a photonic crystal show that the temperatures of atoms guided by a light field in photonic crystals may be much higher than temperatures characteristic of atoms guided in hollow-core fibers.