Optical Dipole Research Articles

Magnetic field driven light control by hybrid magneto-optical metasurfaces

Demonstration of magneto-optical effects enhancement in hybrid Ni/Si metasurfaces is reported. Our results show that the polarization plane rotation angle reaches the considerable value with a change of a sign in a very narrow spectral range in the vicinity of the optical magnetic dipole Mie - type resonance. The specific Faraday rotation is 160 degrees/μm, which is an outstanding effect for an ultra-thin magnetic material with a thickness of only 5 nm as used in this work. These results could be used for the creation of active nonreciprocal photonic nanostructures and metasurfaces.

Production of 87Rb Bose–Einstein Condensate with a Simple Evaporative Cooling Method**Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFA0301803 and 2016YFA0302800), the Key-Area Research and Development Program of GuangDong Province (Grant No. 2019B030330001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61378012, 91636218, 11822403, 11804104, 11804105, 61875060 and U1801661), the Natural Science Foundation of

A Bose–Einstein condensate with a large atom number is an important experimental platform for quantum simulation and quantum information research. An optical dipole trap is the a conventional way to hold the ultracold atoms, where an atomic cloud is evaporatively cooled down before reaching the Bose–Einstein condensate. A carefully designed trap depth controlling curve is typically required to realize the optimal evaporation cooling. We present and demonstrate a simple way to optimize the evaporation cooling in a crossed optical dipole trap. A polyline shape optical power control profile is easily obtained with our method, by which a pure Bose–Einstein condensate with atom number 1.73 × 105 is produced. Theoretically, we numerically simulate the optimal evaporation cooling using the parameters of our apparatus based on a kinetic theory. Compared to the simulation results, our evaporation cooling shows a good performance. We believe that our simple method can be used to quickly realize evaporation cooling in optical dipole traps.

Spectroscopy of atoms in an optical dipole trap using spectrally selective heating by a probe laser field

Spectral properties of atoms localised in an optical dipole trap are studied using the method of spectrally selective heating by a probe field. The method is based on measuring the number of atoms in a trap after they interact with a probe field. The dependence of the number of atoms on the frequency of the probe field fully characterises the shift and width of the spectral absorption line of trapped atoms.

Loading and cooling in an optical trap via hyperfine dark states

We present a novel optical cooling scheme that relies on hyperfine dark states to enhance loading and cooling atoms inside deep optical dipole traps. We demonstrate a seven-fold increase in the number of atoms loaded in the conservative potential with strongly shifted excited states. In addition, we use the energy selective dark-state to efficiently cool the atoms trapped inside the conservative potential rapidly and without losses. Our findings open the door to optically assisted cooling of trapped atoms and molecules which lack the closed cycling transitions normally needed to achieve low temperatures and the high initial densities required for evaporative cooling.

Mean-field interaction-induced dimensional crossover from two to three dimensions in a weakly interacting Bose gas

We study an interaction-induced dimensional crossover from two to three dimensions in a weakly interacting $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). A highly oblate harmonic optical dipole trap was used where we independently controlled the chemical potential and the temperature of the gas. The dimensional crossover was studied from the thermal state occupancy of atoms. In particular, the growth rate of the thermal component was measured, which contradicted the expected behavior in a fixed dimension. Crossover chemical potential and temperature were obtained at the crossover point. We further validate our observation by numerical calculations based on mean-field Hartree-Fock theory and local density approximation, which not only provided a qualitative picture of the underlying mechanism for the dimensional crossover, but also matched well with the experimentally measured crossover parameter.

Azobenzene Sulphonic Dye Photoalignment as a Means to Fabricate Liquid Crystalline Conjugated Polymer Chain‐Orientation‐Based Optical Structures

AbstractThe use of a noncontact photoalignment method to fabricate in‐plane optical structures, defined by the local uniaxial ordering of liquid crystalline conjugated polymer chains, is reported. Molecular orientation is demonstrated for both green‐light‐emitting fluorene‐benzothiadiazole alternating copolymer F8BT and F8BT/red light emitting complex copolymer Red‐F binary blend films deposited on a well‐known azobenzene sulphonic dye photoalignment material SD1. Absorption anisotropy ratios of up to 9.7 are readily achieved for 150 nm thickness F8BT films. Spatial pattern definition, afforded by masking the UV polarized light exposure of the photoalignment layer, allows the fabrication of optical structures with a resolution down to the micron scale. The alignment process is further extended to enable the serial, independent orientation of films deposited on top of each other and to permit the molecular orientation to follow curvilinear patterns. In the former case, this allows F8BT bilayer structures to be fabricated that show even higher absorption anisotropy ratios, up to ≈12, close to the theoretical limit for the previously deduced ≈22° optical transition dipole moment angle relative to the chain axis.

Chirality-dependent optical dipole potential

In this paper, we show the possibility of spatially separating two opposite enantiomers of chiral molecules, using an optical dipole potential. Because of the broken mirror symmetry of effective potential, chiral molecules have a cyclic three-level Δ-configuration structure. Irradiation of these molecules with three femtosecond laser pulses gives rise to an enantiomer-dependent optical force. Interestingly, considerable differences in the direction of the force felt by the enantiomers have been shown to cause the chirality-dependent optical dipole potential which stably captures only one enantiomeric form. Moreover, the proposed scheme provides a complete control over what kind of molecules, the left- or right-handed ones, can be selectively trapped. Note that we have analyzed the optical force, and specifically the trapping effect, by considering the full interaction Hamiltonian, including both rotating and counter-rotating terms.

Evaporative cooling from an optical dipole trap in microgravity

In recent years, cold atoms could prove their scientific impact not only on ground but in microgravity environments such as the drop tower in Bremen, sounding rockets and parabolic flights. We investigate the preparation of cold atoms in an optical dipole trap, with an emphasis on evaporative cooling under microgravity. Up to $ 1\times10^{6} $ rubidium-87 atoms were optically trapped from a temporarily dark magneto optical trap during free fall in the droptower in Bremen. The efficiency of evaporation is determined to be equal with and without the effect of gravity. This is confirmed using numerical simulations that prove the dimension of evaporation to be three-dimensional in both cases due to the anharmonicity of optical potentials. These findings pave the way towards various experiments on ultra-cold atoms under microgravity and support other existing experiments based on atom chips but with plans for additional optical dipole traps such as the upcoming follow-up missions to current and past spaceborne experiments.

Rydberg Atom Entanglements in the Weak Coupling Regime.

We present an entanglement scheme for Rydberg atoms using the van der Waals interaction phase induced by Ramsey-type pulsed interactions. This scheme realizes not only controlled phase operations between atoms at a distance larger than Rydberg blockade distance, but also various counterintuitive entanglement examples, including two-atom entanglement in the presence of a closer third atom and W-state generation for three partially blockaded atoms. Experimental realization is conducted with single rubidium atoms in optical tweezer dipole traps, to demonstrate the proposed entanglement generations with an entanglement fidelity of F=0.59±0.11.

Atom femto trap: experimental realization

In this work, we demonstrate the trapping of rubidium (Rb) atoms in a pulsed optical dipole trap formed by femtosecond laser radiation with a pulse duration as small as 70 fs. The atom localization in such trap strongly depends on the heating of the atoms caused by the momentum diffusion due to the dipole force fluctuations. The atom femto traps can be used for localization of atoms others than alkaline and alkaline earth atomic elements by conversation of pulsed laser radiation of visible or near infrared to UV spectral.

Analysis of optical nanostructures using the surface impedance generating operator

The method of surface impedance generating operator (SIGO) is developed for analyzing complex optical nanostructures. In this method, the main problem is divided into several subproblems. The proposed SIGO method handles these subproblems independently. Therefore, the method is suitable for parallel computing and is numerically efficient for analyzing large-scale optical structures. To formulate the subproblems in integral form, the dyadic Green’s functions need to be derived for all interior and exterior domains. The dyadic Green’s functions of typical exterior problems, e.g., free space, multilayer, periodic, etc., are quite familiar. However, a method based on distribution theory is introduced to obtain the required dyadic Green’s functions of interior problems for scatterers with arbitrary shapes. An important lemma is stated and proved. This lemma preserves the crucial property of Green’s functions, which is the completeness of eigenmodes. The dyadic Green’s functions of the interior problem are specifically derived for the rectangular nanorods. Using the SIGO method and the derived Green’s functions, the current distribution of an optical nano dipole antenna is analyzed. It is shown that, for the same level of accuracy, SIGO can be faster than other conventional formulations and require lower computational resources as well. Therefore, it can be used for successful design and optimization of complex plasmonic circuits.

Terahertz intersubband absorption of GaN/AlGaN step quantum wells grown by MOVPE on Si(111) and Si(110) substrates

We demonstrate terahertz intersubband absorptions in nitride step quantum wells (SQWs) grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy simultaneously on two different substrate orientations [Si(111) and Si(110)]. The structure of the SQWs consists of a 3 nm thick Al0.1Ga0.9N barrier, a 3 nm thick GaN well, and an Al0.05Ga0.95N step barrier with various thicknesses. This structure design has been optimized to approach a flatband potential in the wells to allow for an intersubband absorption in the terahertz frequency range and to maximize the optical dipole moment. Structural characterizations prove the high quality of the samples. Intersubband absorptions at frequencies of 5.6 THz (λ ≈ 54 μm), 7 THz (43 μm), and 8.9 THz (34 μm) are observed at 77 K on both substrate orientations. The observed absorption frequencies are in excellent agreement with calculations accounting for the depolarization shift induced by the electron concentration in the wells.

Effective trapping of cold atoms using dipole and radiative forces in an optical trap

We report on highly effective trapping of cold atoms by a new method for a stable single optical trap in the near-optical resonant regime. An optical trap with the near-optical resonance condition consists of not only the dipole but also the radiative forces, while a trap using a far-off resonance dominates only the dipole force. We estimate a near-optical resonant trap for ultracold rubidium atoms in the range between -0.373 and -2.23 THz from the resonance. The time dependence of the trapped atoms indicates some difference of the stable center-of-mass positions in the near-optical resonant trap, and also indicates that the differences are caused by the change of the equilibrium condition of the optical dipole and radiative forces. A stable position depends only on laser detuning due to the change in the radiative force; however, the position is ineffective against the change in the laser intensity, which results in a change in the radiative force.

Triply Magic Conditions for Microwave Transition of Optically Trapped Alkali-Metal Atoms.

We report the finding of "triply magic" conditions (the doubly magic frequency-intensity conditions of an optical dipole trap plus the magic magnetic field) for the microwave transitions of optically trapped alkali-metal atoms. The differential light shift (DLS) induced by a degenerate two-photon process is adopted to compensate a DLS associated with the one-photon process. Thus, doubly magic conditions for the intensity and frequency of the optical trap beam can be found. Moreover, the DLS decouples from the magnetic field in a linearly polarized optical dipole trap, so that the magic condition of the magnetic field can be applied independently. Therefore, the triply magic conditions can be realized simultaneously. We also experimentally demonstrate the doubly magic frequency-intensity conditions as well as the independence of the magnetic field. When the triply magic conditions are fulfilled, the inhomogeneous and homogeneous decoherences for the optically trapped atom will be dramatically suppressed, and the coherence time can be extended significantly.

Tailoring excitonic states of van der Waals bilayers through stacking configuration, band alignment, and valley spin.

Excitons in monolayer semiconductors have a large optical transition dipole for strong coupling with light. Interlayer excitons in heterobilayers feature a large electric dipole that enables strong coupling with an electric field and exciton-exciton interaction at the cost of a small optical dipole. We demonstrate the ability to create a new class of excitons in hetero- and homobilayers that combines advantages of monolayer and interlayer excitons, i.e., featuring both large optical and electric dipoles. These excitons consist of an electron confined in an individual layer, and a hole extended in both layers, where the carrier-species-dependent layer hybridization can be controlled through rotational, translational, band offset, and valley-spin degrees of freedom. We observe different species of layer-hybridized valley excitons, which can be used for realizing strongly interacting polaritonic gases and optical quantum controls of bidirectional interlayer carrier transfer.

Microwave spectroscopy of radio-frequency-dressedRb87

We study the hyperfine spectrum of atoms of $^{87}$Rb dressed by a radio-frequency field, and present experimental results in three different situations: freely falling atoms, atoms trapped in an optical dipole trap and atoms in an adiabatic radio-frequency dressed shell trap. In all cases, we observe several resonant side bands spaced (in frequency) at intervals equal to the dressing frequency, corresponding to transitions enabled by the dressing field. We theoretically explain the main features of the microwave spectrum, using a semi-classical model in the low field limit and the Rotating Wave Approximation for alkali-like species in general and $^{87}$Rb atoms in particular. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate how the spectral signal of a dressed atomic ensemble enables an accurate determination of the dressing configuration and the probing microwave field.

Designing arbitrary one-dimensional potentials on an atom chip.

We use laser light shaped by a digital micro-mirror device to realize arbitrary optical dipole potentials for one-dimensional (1D) degenerate Bose gases of 87Rb trapped on an atom chip. Superposing optical and magnetic potentials combines the high flexibility of optical dipole traps with the advantages of magnetic trapping, such as effective evaporative cooling and the application of radio-frequency dressed state potentials. As applications, we present a 160 µm long box-like potential with a central tuneable barrier, a box-like potential with a sinusoidally modulated bottom and a linear confining potential. These potentials provide new tools to investigate the dynamics of 1D quantum systems and will allow us to address exciting questions in quantum thermodynamics and quantum simulations.

Oscillatory-like expansion of a Fermionic superfluid

We study the expansion behaviors of a Fermionic superfluid in a cigar-shaped optical dipole trap for the whole BEC-BCS crossover and various temperatures. At low temperature (0.06(1)TF), the atom cloud undergoes an anisotropic hydrodynamic expansion over 30 ms, which behaves like oscillation in the horizontal plane. By analyzing the expansion dynamics according to the superfluid hydrodynamic equation, the effective polytropic index γ¯ of Equation-of-State (EoS) of Fermionic superfluid is extracted. The γ¯ values show a non-monotonic behavior over the BEC-BCS crossover, and have a good agreement with the theoretical results in the unitarity and BEC side. The normalized quasi-frequencies of the oscillatory expansion are measured, which drop significantly from the BEC side to the BCS side and reach a minimum value of 1.73 around 1/kFa=-0.25. Our work improves the understanding of the dynamic properties of strongly interacting Fermi gas.

Modulated interlayer exciton properties in a two-dimensional moiré crystal

Twisted van der Waals heterostructures and the corresponding superlattices, moir\'e superlattices, are remarkable material platforms, in which electron interactions and excited-state properties can be engineered. Particularly, the band offsets between adjacent layers can separate excited electrons and holes, forming interlayer excitons that exhibit unique optical properties. In this work, we employ the first-principles GW-Bethe-Salpeter equation method to calculate quasiparticle band gaps, interlayer excitons, and their modulated excited-state properties in twisted $\mathrm{MoS}{\mathrm{e}}_{2}/\mathrm{WS}{\mathrm{e}}_{2}$ bilayers that are of broad interest currently. In addition to achieving good agreement with the measured interlayer exciton energies, we predict a more than 100-meV lateral quantum confinement on quasiparticle energies and interlayer exciton energies, guiding the effort on searching for localized quantum emitters and simulating the Hubbard model in two-dimensional twisted structures. Moreover, we find that the optical dipole oscillator strength and radiative lifetime of interlayer excitons are modulated by a few orders of magnitude across moir\'e supercells, highlighting the potential of using moir\'e crystals to engineer exciton properties for optoelectronic applications.

Rashba splitting in bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides controlled by electronic ferroelectricity

Twisted van der Waals heterostructures and the corresponding superlattices, moire superlattices, are remarkable new material platforms, in which electron interactions and excited-state properties can be engineered. Particularly, the band offsets between adjacent layers can separate excited electrons and holes, forming interlayer excitons that exhibit unique optical properties. In this work, we employ the first-principles GW-Bethe-Salpeter Equation (BSE) method to calculate quasiparticle band gaps, interlayer excitons, and their modulated excited-state properties in twisted MoSe2/WSe2 bilayers that are of broad interest currently. In addition to achieving good agreements with the measured interlayer exciton energies, we predict a more than 100-meV lateral quantum confinement on quasiparticle energies and interlayer exciton energies, guiding the effort on searching for localized quantum emitters and simulating the Hubbard model in two-dimensional twisted structures. Moreover, we find that the optical dipole oscillator strength and radiative lifetime of interlayer excitons are modulated by a few orders of magnitude across moire supercells, highlighting the potential of using moire crystals to engineer exciton properties for optoelectronic applications.