2014/12/31 by J. Lee, J Lee, J. A. Grover +7 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0953-4075/48/16/165004
published as Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics 48 165004 (2015) · 6 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2015/07/11 · arxiv updated 2015/08/28
We experimentally demonstrate optical trapping of 87Rb atoms using a two-color evanescent field around an optical nanofiber. In our trapping geometry, a blue-detuned traveling wave whose polarization is nearly parallel to the polarization of a red-detuned standing wave produces significant vector light shifts that lead to broadening of the absorption profile of a near-resonant beam at the trapping site. A model that includes scalar, vector, and tensor light shifts of the probe transition 5S1/2-5P3/2 from the trapping beams, weighted by the temperature-dependent position of the atoms in the trap, qualitatively describes the observed asymmetric profile and explains differences with previous experiments that used Cs atoms. The model provides a consistent way to extract the number of atoms in the trap.