Related papers: Creating a self-induced dark spontaneous-force opt…

Crossed optical dipole traps (ODTs) provide three-dimensional confinement of cold atoms and other optically trappable particles. However, the need to maintain the intersection of the two trapping beams poses strict requirements on alignment…

We propose a scheme to transfer molecules from a slow beam into an optical trap using only a single photon absorption and emission cycle. The efficiency of such a scheme is numerically explored for BaF using realistic experimental…

Cold atomic clouds constitute highly resonant nonlinear optical media, whose refractive index can be easily tuned via the light frequency. When subjected to a retro-reflected laser beam and under appropriate conditions, the cloud undergoes…

Low intensity white light was used to increase the loading rate of $^{87}$Rb atoms into a vapor cell magneto-optic trap by inducing non-thermal desorption of Rb atoms from the stainless steel walls of the vapor cell. An increased Rb partial…

We investigate the optical detection of single atoms held in a microscopic atom trap close to a surface. Laser light is guided by optical fibers or optical micro-structures via the atom to a photo-detector. Our results suggest that with…

The problem of creating well-collimated beams of atoms escaping from a trap is studied. This problem is of high importance for the realization of atom lasers. Nonadiabatic dynamics of neutral atoms in nonuniform magnetic fields, typical of…

The recoil effects of spontaneous photon emissions during optical pumping of a trapped three-level atom are exactly calculated. Without resort to the Lamb-Dicke approximation, and considering arbitrary detuning and saturation of the pump…

The development of the magneto-optical trap revolutionized the fields of atomic and quantum physics by providing a simple method for the rapid production of ultracold, trapped atoms. A similar technique for producing a diverse set of dense,…

We have integrated magneto-optical traps (MOTs) into an atom chip by etching pyramids into a silicon wafer. These have been used to trap atoms on the chip, directly from a room temperature vapor of rubidium. This new atom trapping method…

We propose what we believe to be a novel type of optical source for ultra-cold atomic Far Off-Resonance optical-dipole Traps (FORTs). The source is based on an Erbium Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) source that seeds a high power…

A three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT), as an efficient method of producing cold atoms from room-temperature atomic vapor, has been widely used to develop atomic sensors. Various compact MOTs using a single laser beam have been…

We demonstrate direct loading of a strontium (Sr) magneto-optical trap (MOT) from a thermal atomic beam in a single-chamber vacuum system. The MOT operates without a Zeeman slower, a slowing laser, a two-dimensional MOT, or differential…

We report on an experimental realization of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) that allows the generation of cold atomic beams of 39K and 41K bosonic potassium isotopes. The high measured fluxes up to 1.0x10^11 atoms/s and low…

We review novel methods to investigate, control and manipulate neutral atoms in optical lattices. These setups allow unprecedented quantum control over large numbers of atoms and thus are very promising for applications in quantum…

We demonstrate a new method for non-destructive imaging of laser-cooled atoms. This spatial heterodyne technique forms a phase image by interfering a strong carrier laser beam with a weak probe beam that passes through the cold atom cloud.…

We present an optical system designed to capture and observe a single neutral atom in an optical dipole trap, created by focussing a laser beam using a large numerical aperture N.A.=0.5 aspheric lens. We experimentally evaluate the…

Optically trapped laser-cooled polar molecules hold promise for new science and technology in quantum information and quantum simulation. Large numerical aperture optical access and long trap lifetimes are needed for many studies, but these…

We propose a new method to cool gaseous samples of neutral atoms. The gas is confined in a non dissipative optical trap in the presence of an homogeneous magnetic field. The method accumulates atoms in the $m_F=0$ Zeeman sub-level. Cooling…

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…

We demonstrate that the coherence of a single mobile atomic qubit can be well preserved during a transfer process among different optical dipole traps (ODTs). This is a prerequisite step in realizing a large-scale neutral atom quantum…