No Arabic abstract
Resonant light interacting with matter can support different phases of a polarizable medium, and optical bistability where two such phases coexist. Here we identify signatures of optical phase transitions and optical bistability mapped onto scattered light in planar arrays of cold atoms. Methods on how to explore such systems in superradiant, and extreme subradiant states existing outside the light cone, are proposed. The cooperativity threshold and intensity regimes for the intrinsic optical bistability, supported by resonant dipole-dipole interactions alone, are derived in several cases of interest analytically. Subradiant states require lower intensities, but stronger cooperativity for the existence of non-trivial phases than superradiant states. The transmitted light reveals the onset of phase transitions and bistability that are predicted by mean-field theory as large jumps in coherent and incoherent signals and hysteresis. In the quantum solution, traces of phase transitions are identified in enhanced quantum fluctuations of excited level populations.
We determine the transmission of light through a planar atomic array beyond the limit of low light intensity that displays optical bistability in the mean-field regime. We develop a theory describing the intrinsic optical bistability, which is supported purely by resonant dipole-dipole interactions in free space, showing how bistable light amplitudes exhibit both strong cooperative and weak single-atom responses and how they depend on the underlying low light intensity collective excitation eigenmodes. Similarities of the theory with optical bistability in cavities are highlighted, while recurrent light scattering between atoms takes on the role of cavity mirrors. Our numerics and analytic estimates show a sharp variation in the extinction, reflectivity, and group delays of the array, with the incident light completely extinguished up to a critical intensity well beyond the low light intensity limit. Our analysis paves a way for collective nonlinear optics with cooperatively responding dense atomic ensembles.
We report enhanced three-dimensional degenerated Raman sideband cooling (3D DRSC) of caesium (Cs) atoms in a standard single-cell vapour-loading magneto-optical trap. Our improved scheme involves using a separate repumping laser and optimized lattice detuning. We load $1.5 times 10^7$ atoms into the Raman lattice with a detuning of -15.5 GHz (to the ground F = 3 state). Enhanced 3D DRSC is used to cool them from 60 $mu$K to 1.7 $mu$K within 12 ms and the number of obtained atoms is about $1.2 times 10^7$. A theoretical model is proposed to simulate the measured number of trapped atoms. The result shows good agreement with the experimental data. The technique paves the way for loading a large number of ultracold Cs atoms into a crossed dipole trap and efficient evaporative cooling in a single-cell system.
We report on the trapping of single Rb atoms in tunable arrays of optical tweezers in a cryogenic environment at $sim 4$ K. We describe the design and construction of the experimental apparatus, based on a custom-made, UHV compatible, closed-cycle cryostat with optical access. We demonstrate the trapping of single atoms in cryogenic arrays of optical tweezers, with lifetimes in excess of $sim6000$ s, despite the fact that the vacuum system has not been baked out. These results open the way to large arrays of single atoms with extended coherence, for applications in large-scale quantum simulation of many-body systems, and more generally in quantum science and technology.
We demonstrate a set of tools for microscopic control of neutral strontium atoms. We report single-atom loading into an array of sub-wavelength scale optical tweezers, light-shift free control of a narrow-linewidth optical transition, three-dimensional ground-state cooling, and high-fidelity nondestructive imaging of single atoms on sub-wavelength spatial scales. Extending the microscopic control currently achievable in single-valence-electron atoms to species with more complex internal structure, like strontium, unlocks a wealth of opportunities in quantum information science, including tweezer-based metrology, new quantum computing architectures, and new paths to low-entropy many-body physics.
We present programmable two-dimensional arrays of microscopic atomic ensembles consisting of more than 400 sites with nearly uniform filling and small atom number fluctuations. Our approach involves direct projection of light patterns from a digital micromirror device with high spatial resolution onto an optical pancake trap acting as a reservoir. This makes it possible to load large arrays of tweezers in a single step with high occupation numbers and low power requirements per tweezer. Each atomic ensemble is confined to $sim 1,mu$m$^3$ with a controllable occupation from 20 to 200 atoms and with (sub)-Poissonian atom number fluctuations. Thus they are ideally suited for quantum simulation and for realizing large arrays of collectively encoded Rydberg-atom qubits for quantum information processing.