Optical dipole mirror for cold atoms based on a metallic diffraction grating.

We report on the realization of a plasmonic dipole mirror for cold atoms based on a metallic grating coupler. A cloud of atoms is reflected by the repulsive potential generated by surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) excited on a reflection gold grating by a 780 nm laser beam. Experimentally and numerically determined mirror efficiencies are close to 100%. The intensity of SPPs above a real grating coupler and the atomic trajectories, as well as the momentum dispersion of the atom cloud being reflected, are computed. A suggestion is given as to how the plasmonic mirror might serve as an optical atom chip.