Experimental Realization of an Optical One-Way Barrier for Neutral Atoms
arXiv:0802.1585 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.240407
Abstract
We demonstrate an asymmetric optical potential barrier for ultracold 87 Rb atoms using laser light tuned near the D_2 optical transition. Such a one-way barrier, where atoms impinging on one side are transmitted but reflected from the other, is a realization of Maxwell's demon and has important implications for cooling atoms and molecules not amenable to standard laser-cooling techniques. In our experiment, atoms are confined to a far-detuned dipole trap consisting of a single focused Gaussian beam, which is divided near the focus by the barrier. The one-way barrier consists of two focused laser beams oriented almost normal to the dipole-trap axis. The first beam is tuned to have a red (blue) detuning from the F=1 -> F' (F=2 -> F') hyperfine transitions, and thus presents a barrier only for atoms in the F=2 ground state, while letting F=1 atoms pass. The second beam pumps the atoms to F=2 on the reflecting side of the barrier, thus producing the asymmetry.
5 pages, 4 figures; includes changes to address referee comments
References in corpus (7)
- Observation of Collective-Emission-Induced Cooling inside an Optical Cavity
- Single-Photon Atomic Cooling
- Compression of Atomic Phase Space Using an Asymmetric One-Way Barrier
- Statistical Mechanics of an Optical Phase Space Compressor
- Improvement by laser quenching of an "atom diode": a one-way barrier for ultra-cold atoms
- Decoherence Driven Quantum Transport
- Three-dimensional effects in "atom diodes": atom-optical devices for one-way motion
Cited by in corpus (50)
- Information heat engine: converting information to energy by feedback control
- Superflow in a toroidal Bose-Einstein condensate: an atom circuit with a tunable weak link
- On-chip Maxwell's demon as an information-powered refrigerator
- Quantum Szilard Engine
- Spatial adiabatic passage: a review of recent progress
- Probing the circulation of ring-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates
- Absorption refrigerators based on Coulomb-coupled single-electron systems
- Blue-detuned optical ring trap for Bose-Einstein condensates based on conical refraction
- He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phase in atom interferometry
- Atomtronics with holes: Coherent transport of an empty site in a triple well potential
- Spin Field Effect Transistors with Ultracold Atoms
- Continuous Loading of a Conservative Trap from an Atomic Beam
- Principles of an Atomtronic Battery
- Stochastic Efficiency: Five Case Studies
- Guaranteed energy-efficient bit reset in finite time
- Bayesian information engine that optimally exploits noisy measurements
- Ponderomotive forces on waves in modulated media
- Enhanced observability of quantum post-exponential decay using distant detectors
- Transport of ultracold atoms between concentric traps via spatial adiabatic passage
- Experimental realization of a non-magnetic one-way spin switch
- Revisiting the quantum Szilard engine with fully quantum considerations
- Dressed-particle approach in the nonrelativistic classical limit
- Szilard engine revisited; information from time forward and backward process
- Implementation of an atomtronic SQUID in a strongly confined toroidal condensate
- Dynamics of Cold Atoms Crossing a One-Way Barrier
- Application of lasers to ultracold atoms and molecules
- A Bose gas in a single-beam optical dipole trap
- Reflection of a Particle from a Quantum Measurement
- Sub-Arrhenius diffusion in a binary colloidal system
- Phase transition in the Jarzynski estimator of free energy differences
- Quantum particle in a split box: Excitations to the ground state
- Cold atom dynamics in crossed laser beam waveguides
- Maxwell's demons with finite size and response time
- Band gap structures for matter waves
- Atom cooling with an atom-optical diode on a ring
- Performance limits of information engines
- Evaporation limited loading of an atom trap
- Near-resonant optical forces beyond the two-level approximation for a continuous source of spin-polarized cold atoms
- Cooling Atoms with a Moving One-Way Barrier
- The influence of measurement error on Maxwell's demon
- Predictive Maxwell's Demons
- Optimizing the catching of atoms or molecules in two-dimensional traps
- Spin mixing in colliding spinor condensates: formation of an effective barrier
- On the physical nature of Anderson localization effect
- Comment on "Entropy production and the arrow of time"
- Efficient cooling of high-angular-momentum atoms
- Realizing an Atomtronic AQUID in a Rotating-Box Potential
- Trajectory control using an information engine
- Super-Arrhenius diffusion in a binary colloidal mixture at low volume fraction: an effect of depletion interaction due to an asymmetric barrier
- Quantum Catcher: Trapping and cooling particles using a moving atom diode and an atomic mirror