Kerckhoff Joseph, Mabuchi Hideo
Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Opt Express. 2009 Aug 17;17(17):14744-60. doi: 10.1364/oe.17.014744.
Contemporary experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED) with gas-phase neutral atoms rely increasingly on laser cooling and optical, magneto-optical or magnetostatic trapping methods to provide atomic localization with sub-micron uncertainty. Difficult to achieve in free space, this goal is further frustrated by atom-surface interactions if the desired atomic placement approaches within several hundred nanometers of a solid surface, as can be the case in setups incorporating monolithic dielectric optical resonators such as microspheres, microtoroids, microdisks or photonic crystal defect cavities. Typically in such scenarios, the smallest atom-surface separation at which the van der Waals interaction can be neglected is taken to be the optimal localization point for associated trapping schemes, but this sort of conservative strategy generally compromises the achievable cavity QED coupling strength. Here we suggest a new approach to the design of optical dipole traps for atom confinement near surfaces that exploits strong surface interactions, rather than avoiding them, and present the results of a numerical study based on (39)K atoms and indium tin oxide (ITO). Our theoretical framework points to the possibility of utilizing nanopatterning methods to engineer novel modifications of atom-surface interactions.
当代利用气相中性原子进行的腔量子电动力学（腔QED）实验越来越依赖激光冷却以及光学、磁光或静磁捕获方法，以实现不确定性低于亚微米的原子定位。这一目标在自由空间中难以实现，而如果所需的原子放置位置接近固体表面几百纳米以内，原子与表面的相互作用会使情况更加复杂，在包含整体式介电光学谐振器（如微球、微环面、微盘或光子晶体缺陷腔）的装置中就可能出现这种情况。在这种情况下，通常将范德瓦尔斯相互作用可忽略不计的最小原子与表面间距视为相关捕获方案的最佳定位点，但这种保守策略通常会损害可实现的腔QED耦合强度。在此，我们提出一种新方法来设计用于在表面附近限制原子的光学偶极阱，该方法利用而非避免强表面相互作用，并展示了基于（39）K原子和氧化铟锡（ITO）的数值研究结果。我们的理论框架指出了利用纳米图案化方法来设计原子与表面相互作用新特性的可能性。
