An atom mirror etched from a hard drive

In order to probe nanostructures on a surface we present a microscope based on the quantum recurrence phenomena. A cloud of atoms bounces off an atomic mirror connected to a cantilever and exhibits quantum recurrences. The times at which the recurrences occur depend on the initial height of the bouncing atoms above the atomic mirror, and vary following the structures on the surface under investigation. The microscope has inherent advantages over existing techniques of scannin...

We give a comprehensive overview of the development of micro traps, from the first experiments on guiding atoms using current carrying wires in the early 1990's to the creation of a BEC on an atom chip.

Using optical dipole forces we have realized controlled transport of a single or any desired small number of neutral atoms over a distance of a centimeter with sub-micrometer precision. A standing wave dipole trap is loaded with a prescribed number of cesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap. Mutual detuning of the counter-propagating laser beams moves the interference pattern, allowing us to accelerate and stop the atoms at preselected points along the standing wave. The tra...

We report on the design, implementation, and performance of a compact two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) for cesium. In a small-volume vacuum chamber, the setup uses cesium dispensers in close proximity to the trapping region of the 2D MOT and operates at low vapor pressures in the $10^{-9}$ torr range. We achieve a cold atom flux of $4 \times 10^8$ atoms/s that is comparable to the performance of more complex atomic sources. The setup is simple to construct and ca...

Modern research in optical physics has achieved quantum control of strong interactions between a single atom and one photon within the setting of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED). However, to move beyond current proof-of-principle experiments involving one or two conventional optical cavities to more complex scalable systems that employ N >> 1 microscopic resonators requires the localization of individual atoms on distance scales < 100 nm from a resonator's surface. In t...

Trapping and optically interfacing laser-cooled neutral atoms is an essential requirement for their use in advanced quantum technologies. Here we simultaneously realize both of these tasks with cesium atoms interacting with a multi-color evanescent field surrounding an optical nanofiber. The atoms are localized in a one-dimensional optical lattice about 200 nm above the nanofiber surface and can be efficiently interrogated with a resonant light field sent through the nanofibe...

We present a complete fabrication study of an efficiently-coupled microring optical circuit tailored for cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) with trapped atoms. The microring structures are fabricated on a transparent membrane with high in-vacuum fiber edge-coupling efficiency in a broad frequency band. In addition, a bus waveguide pulley coupler realizes critical coupling to the microrings at both of the cesium D-line frequencies, while high coupling efficiency is achieved ...

We use an optical cavity to detect single atoms magnetically trapped on an atom chip. We implement the detection using both fluorescence into the cavity and reduction in cavity transmission due to the presence of atoms. In fluorescence, we register 2.0(2) photon counts per atom, which allows us to detect single atoms with 75% efficiency in 250 microseconds. In absorption, we measure transmission attenuation of 3.3(3)% per atom, which allows us to count small numbers of atoms ...

A fast packet of cold atoms is coupled into a magnetic guide and subsequently slowed down by reflection on a magnetic potential barrier ('mirror') moving along the guide. A detailed characterization of the resulting decelerated packet is performed. We show also how this technique can be used to generate a continuous and intense flux of slow, magnetically guided atoms.

Trapping of single ultracold atoms is an important tool for applications ranging from quantum computation and communication to sensing. However, most experimental setups, while very precise and versatile, can only be operated in specialized laboratory environments due to their large size, complexity and high cost. Here, we introduce a new trapping concept for ultracold atoms in optical tweezers based on micrometer-scale lenses that are 3D printed onto the tip of standard opti...