Blue-detuned optical ring trap for Bose-Einstein condensates based on conical refraction

Abstract

We present a novel approach for the optical manipulation of neutral atoms in annular light structures produced by the phenomenon of conical refraction occurring in biaxial optical crystals. For a beam focused to a plane behind the crystal, the focal plane exhibits two concentric bright rings enclosing a ring of null intensity called the Poggendorff ring. We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that the Poggendorff dark ring of conical refraction is confined in three dimensions by regions of higher intensity. We derive the positions of the confining intensity maxima and minima and discuss the application of the Poggendorff ring for trapping ultra-cold atoms using the repulsive dipole force of blue-detuned light. We give analytical expressions for the trapping frequencies and potential depths along both the radial and the axial directions. Finally, we present realistic numerical simulations of the dynamics of a ${}^{87}$Rb Bose-Einstein condensate trapped inside the Poggendorff ring which are in good agreement with corresponding experimental results.

Opt. Express 23, 1638-1650 (2015) (Optical cooling and Trapping special issue)

References in corpus (14)

• Atom Interferometers
• Observation of persistent flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a toroidal trap
• Optical ferris wheel for ultracold atoms
• Quench-induced supercurrents in an annular Bose gas
• Experimental Realization of an Optical One-Way Barrier for Neutral Atoms
• Cold atom confinement in an all-optical dark ring trap
• Optical vault: reconfigurable bottle beam by conically refracted light
• Versatile two-dimensional potentials for ultra-cold atoms
• Dark dynamic acousto-optic ring lattices for ultracold atoms
• Wave-vector and polarization dependence of conical refraction
• Super-Gaussian conical refraction beam
• Multiple rings formation in cascaded conical refraction
• Generating a three dimensional dark focus from a single conically refracted light beam
• Coherent injecting, extracting, and velocity filtering of neutral atoms in a ring trap via spatial adiabatic passage

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Coherent superposition of current flows in an Atomtronic Quantum Interference Device
• Polarization tailored novel vector beams based on conical refraction
• On the dual-cone nature of the conical refraction phenomenon
• Light propagation in biaxial crystals
• Transformation of vector beams with radial and azimuthal polarizations in biaxial crystals