Shaping Cold Atom Clouds with a Vortex Beam

We introduce a method for shaping a cold atom cloud using a vortex laser beam with a polarization singularity at its center, which creates a point of vanishing intensity. Exploiting this feature we experimentally demonstrate two different schemes to create micron-scaled line- and sheet-like atomic density distributions. In the dynamic scheme, atoms in the bright beam regions are accelerated and therefore effectively removed from the cloud. In the dark-state scheme, these atoms are pumped into a state that does not interact with the shaping light. In both cases, an atomic distribution remains, either as a thin line or as a sheet when an additional polarizer is used. We find good agreement between the experimental results and our theoretical model, which predicts the method to be in principle not diffraction-limited, paving the way for studies of phenomena arising in unconfined atomic ensembles on the micrometer scale.