Standing-wave Laser Research Articles

Driving Alkali Rydberg Transitions with a Phase-Modulated Optical Lattice.

We develop and demonstrate a spectroscopic method for Rydberg-Rydberg transitions using a phase-controlled and -modulated, standing-wave laser field focused on a cloud of cold ^{85}Rb Rydberg atoms. The method is based on the ponderomotive (A^{2}) interaction of the Rydberg electron, which has less-restrictive selection rules than electric-dipole couplings, allowing us to probe both nS_{1/2}→nP_{1/2} and nS_{1/2}→(n+1)S_{1/2} transitions in first order. Without increase in laser power, third- and fourth-order subharmonic drives are employed to access Rydberg transitions in the 40 to 70GHz frequency range using widely available optical phase modulators in the Ku band (12 to 18GHz). Measurements agree well with simulations based on the model we develop. The spectra have prominent Doppler-free components with linewidths ≲200 kHz. The method paves the way for optical Doppler-free high-precision spectroscopy of Rydberg-Rydberg transitions and for spatially selective qubit manipulation with μm-scale resolution in Rydberg-based simulators and quantum computers, provided that magic states are chosen and that the atoms are sufficiently cold.

A chiral microchip laser using anisotropic grating mirrors for single mode emission.

A pair of nanostructured mirrors made of a diffraction grating inscribed in the top layer of a Bragg mirror are designed such that a phase shift near π and different reflected amplitudes exist between transverse electric (TE) and magnetic (TM) reflected polarization states at normal incidence. When a standing wave laser resonator is formed with two such mirrors and the two mirrors' principal axes are twisted one with respect to the other, this phase shift condition suppresses multiple longitudinal mode emission arising from axial spatial hole burning. In addition, the different amplitudes of TE and TM reflected polarizations create polarization eigenstates with different round-trip losses, suppressing one polarization eigenstate. Laser experiments made with a Yb3+-doped Y3Al5O12 active material reveal enhanced purity of the emission spectrum compared to similar lasers using conventional laser mirrors. The proposed design enables a miniature single mode laser, replacing more complex designs usually needed to achieve that goal.

Smith–Purcell Radiation Driven by the Field of a Standing Laser Wave

Smith–Purcell radiation is well known as a source of quasi-monochromatic electromagnetic radiation that occurs when fast electrons move above a diffraction grating. In this paper, we calculated the Smith–Purcell radiation generation from a flat surface along which there is a field of a standing laser wave. A periodically changing laser field induces a periodic inhomogeneity in the distribution of electrons in the near-surface layer. This periodicity, being an analogue of a diffraction grating, leads to the possibility of generating Smith–Purcell radiation. It is shown that the properties of Smith–Purcell radiation from such an unusual “light” grating are also unusual: the dispersion relation, unlike the standard for Smith–Purcell radiation, does not contain diffraction orders, so that all radiation is concentrated in one peak. The calculated effect makes it possible to control the radiation frequency or angle by changing the laser frequency and may be of interest for the development of new compact radiation sources with tunable characteristics and for non-invasive diagnostics of relativistic electron beams.

Unidirectional reflectionless anti-parity-time-symmetric photonic lattices of thermal atoms

We experimentally demonstrate an anti-parity-time (anti-$PT$)-symmetric photonic lattice in thermal cesium atoms driven by two standing-wave laser fields. Such a lattice possesses anti-$PT$-symmetric susceptibility, of which the real (imaginary) part is an odd (even) function of position. By manipulating the intensities and phases of the two standing-wave fields, we experimentally observe unidirectional reflectionless propagation at the exceptional points. Our work provides a platform to study the scattering property of anti-$PT$-symmetric systems.

Vacuum laser acceleration of super-ponderomotive electrons using relativistic transparency injection

Intense lasers can accelerate electrons to very high energy over a short distance. Such compact accelerators have several potential applications including fast ignition, high energy physics, and radiography. Among the various schemes of laser-based electron acceleration, vacuum laser acceleration has the merits of super-high acceleration gradient and great simplicity. Yet its realization has been difficult because injecting free electrons into the fast-oscillating laser field is not trivial. Here we demonstrate free-electron injection and subsequent vacuum laser acceleration of electrons up to 20 MeV using the relativistic transparency effect. When a high-contrast intense laser drives a thin solid foil, electrons from the dense opaque plasma are first accelerated to near-light speed by the standing laser wave in front of the solid foil and subsequently injected into the transmitted laser field as the opaque plasma becomes relativistically transparent. It is possible to further optimize the electron injection/acceleration by manipulating the laser polarization, incident angle, and temporal pulse shaping. Our result also sheds light on the fundamental relativistic transparency process, crucial for producing secondary particle and light sources.

Critical-dimension scanning electron microscope characterization of smoothly varying wave structures with a Monte Carlo simulation

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) characterization of a smoothly varying nanograting structure (a Pt-coated Cr grid on a Si substrate) with a sinusoidal waveform has been carried out by a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation technique. Previous studies with critical-dimension (CD) SEM (CD-SEM) have mostly concerned line structures with sharp edges so that there is an obvious edge bloom in the linescan profile of secondary electrons. In contrast, the present grating structures prepared by a laser-focused atomic deposition technique have a smoothly varying waveform in the cross-sectional profile, which pose greater difficulty for quantitative structural characterization by SEM. The grating structure, with a fixed pitch of λ/2 as the period of the standing-wave laser light field, where λ is the wavelength of the corresponding laser light, can be used as an ideal nanoscale metrological length tool; therefore, it is important to characterize its structural features over a large deposited area by SEM imaging for quality control, with the aim of mass reproduction. The present work extends the CD characterization of MC simulation methods to more complex structures. Taking into account different experimental factors, i.e. primary electron beam parameters, geometrical parameters and material properties, the unknown geometrical parameters (i.e. base height, peak height, linewidth shrinkage and peak tilt angle) of the grating lines have been successfully extracted from the experimental linescan profiles of SEM images.

Population density gratings creation and control in resonant medium by half-cycle terahertz pulses

Electromagnetically induced gratings (EIG) are created by standing-wave laser field in resonant media. Such gratings can be also created by few-cycle electromagnetic pulses counter-propagating in the medium via coherent Rabi oscillations of atomic inversion. In this case, instantaneous cross-section of the pulses in the medium is not necessary for grating formation. In this paper, we revise our recent results in study of such grating formation and their control by few-cycle pulses coherently propagating in a resonant medium. We demonstrate the grating formation and their control in three-level medium excited by three subcycle THz pulses.

Transportation dynamics of dielectric particles with the gradient forces in the field of orthogonal standing laser waves

We develop the theory of transportation and localization of a transparent dielectric spherical particle with the gradient forces in the interference field of orthogonally directed standing laser waves Ez(coskz) and Ex(coskx). It is shown that, when the waves Ez and Ex are coherent, the interference radiation field contains two harmonic components with the periods Λ0=π/k and ΛΔ=π/ksin(π/4). The amplitudes of the gradient force components depend on the ratio of the particle radius R to the modulation periods due to inhomogeneity of radiation in the particle volume and are given by the Bessel functions J3/2(2πR/Λ0) and J3/2(2πR/ΛΔ). We find the critical particle radii R0 and RΔ=2R0 defined by the Bessel functions zeros and corresponding to the vanishing components of the gradient forces. In particular, for the radiation with the wavelength λ0=1.064 μm and a particle in water, the smallest critical radii are R0=0.286 μm and 0.492 μm and RΔ=0.404 μm and 0.696 μm, respectively. For a number of special cases, we obtain the analytical solutions of the Newton equations and the particle trajectories that depend on the ratio of wave intensities and the particle radius. The results can be used to study the dynamics of the “optical assembly” of a two-dimensional particles matrix which behaves as a molecular crystal [Mellor and Bain, Chem. Phys. Chem. 7 (2006) 329–332].

Optical localization of a nitrogen-vacancy center in three-dimensional space via probe absorption

We demonstrate the three-dimensional localization of a single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in nanodiamond by the use of position-dependent standing-wave laser fields in an external magnetic field. We show that various localization phenomena including cask-like, disc-like, cylinder-like, and sphere-like patterns can be achieved by monitoring the probe absorption spectrum in two different coupling formalisms. By selecting an appropriate combination of system parameters, we can localize an individual NV center within a subspace at a deterministic position, which is a consequence of quantum interference. Furthermore, this deterministic positional control of coherent NV centers may have potential applications in NV-based nanostructures, such as sensing and quantum information-processing devices.

Observation of the Relativistic Reversal of the Ponderomotive Potential.

The secular dynamics of a nonrelativistic charged particle in an electromagnetic wave can be described by the ponderomotive potential. Although ponderomotive electron-laser interactions at relativistic velocities are important for emerging technologies from laser-based particle accelerators to laser-enhanced electron microscopy, the effects of special relativity on the interaction have only been studied theoretically. Here, we use a transmission electron microscope to measure the position-dependent phase shift imparted to a relativistic electron wave function when it traverses a standing laser wave. The kinetic energy of the electrons is varied between 80 and 300keV, and the laser standing wave has a continuous-wave intensity of 175 GW/cm^{2}. In contrast to the nonrelativistic case, we demonstrate that the phase shift depends on both the electron velocity and the wave polarization, confirming the predictions of a quasiclassical theory of the interaction. Remarkably, if the electron's speed is greater than 1/sqrt[2] of the speed of light, the phase shift at the electric field nodes of the wave can exceed that at the antinodes. In this case there exists a polarization such that the phase shifts at the nodes and antinodes are equal, and the electron does not experience Kapitza-Dirac diffraction. Our results thus provide new capabilities for coherent electron beam manipulation.

A Ring-Cavity Diode Laser

In this article, we report on a ring-cavity diode laser configuration, which has more features compared to the standing-wave external-cavity diode lasers. First, a transmission grating will be used, and the ring-cavity laser output will be the zero-order output from the transmission grating. Therefore, unlike the standing-wave external cavity diode lasers, the output direction of this ring-cavity laser does not depend on the laser's frequency. Second, since it is a ring-cavity laser, it can avoid the local heating caused by the antinodes of the standing-wave lasers. Moreover, because this ring-cavity will allow the laser beam to pass the transmission grating two times, it is expected that this will ultimately result in a narrower linewidth compared to the external-cavity standing-wave lasers with the same cavity length.

The Effect of Internal Dynamics on the Motion of Cold Atoms in 2D Optical Lattices with Interfering Laser Beams

We show theoretically and numerically that cold two-level atoms demonstrate unexpectedly complicated motion in an absolutely rigid two-dimensional optical lattice with interfering laser beams. The point-like atoms can move there in a chaotic way resembling motion of particles in a random potential. Chaos arises if the laser frequency is close to the atomic transition frequency where one should take into account the excitation of internal atomic states by the laser field. After loading cold atoms to the lattice, their induced electric dipole moments interact with a spatially inhomogeneous electric field of the two-dimensional standing laser wave. We find the range of the atom–field detuning where the synchronized (with the laser field) component of the atomic dipole moment changes in a random-like manner just after crossing the nodal lines of the standing wave where the electric field is zero. It, in turn, causes irregular changes in the momentum of atoms, leading eventually to chaotic walking of cold atoms in a deterministic potential. We show that adjusting the single control parameter, the atom–field detuning, it is possible to switch between regular and chaotic regimes of motion.

Single-longitudinal-mode diamond laser stabilization using polarization-dependent Raman gain

We report a novel cavity feedback mechanism for stabilizing single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation of diamond Raman lasers. Polarization-dependent Raman gain and in-grown stress birefringence in diamond were investigated as sources for Hansch-Couillaud-type locking signals. The power range of SLM operation increased from 2.1 W to 7.2 W, compared to the free-running laser, for a simple standing-wave laser cavity without frequency-selective elements. Methods for further increasing power range and frequency stability are discussed.

Light-force-induced shift in laser spectroscopy of atomic helium

A laser-power-dependent shift has been observed in various atomic beam spectroscopy measurements, which was often treated by extrapolating the results to the zero-field limit. Here we present an experimental and theoretical study of this effect in the measurements of the $2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{3}S\ensuremath{-}2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{3}P$ transition frequency of $^{4}\mathrm{He}$. The light-force-induced shift was attributed as a result of modulated atomic trajectories induced by the standing-wave laser field and consequent distortions in the lineshape. Modulation of the beam spatial distributions was detected by imaging atoms at high laser power and was also simulated by the Monte Carlo wave-function approach. The nonlinear behavior of the light-force-shift was observed experimentally and reproduced by the simulations. The systematic shift in the extrapolated result at the zero-field limit was analyzed. As a consequence of this effect, a correction of +0.50(80) kHz was added to our previous result on the $2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{3}{S}_{1}\ensuremath{-}2{\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}}^{3}{P}_{1}$ transition frequency [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 263002 (2017)], and the reevaluated value is 276 734 477 704.3(1.6) kHz.

Efficient three-dimensional atom localization using probe absorption in a diamond-configuration atomic system

A new scheme for three-dimensional (3D) atom localization is proposed based on measuring the probe absorption spectra in a four-level diamond-configuration atomic system, in which the atom interacts with three orthogonal standing-wave laser fields. Due to spatial-dependent interaction between atom and fields, position information of the atom can be obtained by measuring the absorption spectra of the weak probe field. The results show that atom localization properties can be significantly improved and some interesting spatial localization structures such as double-layer lantern-like, single-layer lantern-like, gourd-like, cylinder-like, and ellipsoid-like patterns can be achieved when we adjust system parameters properly. Most importantly, we can find the atom at a particular position in 3D space with 100% probability under appropriate conditions.

Engineering steady entanglement for trapped ions at finite temperature by dissipation

We propose a dissipative method for preparation of a maximally entangled steady state of two trapped ions in the Lamb-Dicke limit. By addressing the trapped-ion system with a monochromatic standing wave laser pulse of frequency resonant with the ionic transition and a microwave field coupled to the ground-state transitions, we obtain an effective coupling between two particles, which is independent of the phonon-number fluctuations. Meanwhile, the controlled spontaneous emission of trapped ions is implemented via pumping the metastable states upwards to the short-lived ionic states by an auxiliary laser field. Combining the unitary processes with the engineered dissipation, a deterministic Bell state can be produced irrespective of the initial states of systems. Moreover, our result shows that the CHSH inequality can be violated for a wide range of decoherence parameters, even at finite temperature.

Deflection of a molecular beam using the bichromatic stimulated force

We demonstrate that a bichromatic standing-wave laser field can exert a significantly larger force on a molecule than ordinary radiation pressure. Our experiment measures the deflection of a pulsed supersonic beam of CaF molecules by a two-frequency laser field detuned symmetrically about resonance with the nearly closed $X (v=0) \rightarrow B (v'=0)$ transition. The inferred force as a function of relative phase between the two counterpropagating beams is in reasonable agreement with numerical simulations of the bichromatic force in this multilevel system. The large magnitude of the force, coupled with the reduced rate of spontaneous emission, indicates its potential utility in the production and manipulation of ultracold molecules.

Time-dependent population inversion gratings in laser frequency combs

In standing-wave lasers, spatial hole burning induces a static grating of the population inversion, enabling multimode operation with several independent lasing modes. In the presence of a mode-locking mechanism, these modes may become correlated, giving origin to a frequency comb. Quantum cascade lasers, owing to their ultrafast gain dynamics, are ideally suited to achieve comb operation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that the modes of a quantum cascade laser frequency comb coherently beat to produce time-dependent population inversion gratings, which spatially modulate the current in the device at frequencies equal to the mode separation and its higher harmonics. This phenomenon allows the laser to serve as a phased collection of microwave local oscillators and is utilized to demonstrate quadrature amplitude modulation, a staple of modern communications. These findings may provide for a new class of integrated transmitters, potentially extending from the microwave to the low terahertz band.

Relativistic charged particle ejection from optical lattice

We have analyzed relativistic (∼ MeV) electron ejection from potential channels of standing laser wave taking into account both rapid and averaged oscillations within the region of declining field of standing wave. We show that only a few last rapid oscillations can define transverse speed and, therefore, angle at which a particle leaves standing wave. This conclusion might drastically simplify numerical simulations of charged particles channeling and accompanying radiation in crossed lasers field. Moreover, it might provide a valuable information for estimation of charged particle beams parameters after their interaction with finite standing wave.

3D atom microscopy in the presence of Doppler shift

The interaction of hot atoms with laser fields produces a Doppler shift, which can severely affect the precise spatial measurement of an atom. We suggest an experimentally realizable scheme to address this issue in the three-dimensional position measurement of a single atom in vapors of rubidium atoms. A three-level Λ-type atom–field configuration is considered where a moving atom interacts with three orthogonal standing-wave laser fields and spatial information of the atom in 3D space is obtained via an upper-level population using a weak probe laser field. The atom moves with velocity v along the probe laser field, and due to the Doppler broadening the precision of the spatial information deteriorates significantly. It is found that via a microwave field, precision in the position measurement of a single hot rubidium atom can be attained, overcoming the limitation posed by the Doppler shift.