A magnetic lens for cold atoms controlled by a rf field

Abstract

We report on a new type of magnetic lens that focuses atomic clouds using a static inhomogeneous magnetic field in combination with a radio-frequency field. The experimental study is performed with a cloud of cold cesium atoms. The rf field adiabatically deforms the magnetic potential of a coil and therefore changes its focusing properties. The focal length can be tuned precisely by changing the rf frequency value. Depending on the rf antenna position relative to the DC magnetic profile, the focal length of the atomic lens can be either decreased or increased by the rf field

Recent developments in trapping and manipulation of atoms with adiabatic potentials

“…Finally, the relatively new field of atomtronics [112][113][114][115] concentrates on the manipulation of atomic systems in a modular way which has some analogies with electronics. The flexible and highly configurable nature of dressed atom potentials may have a role to play here (for example, dressed potentials have already been used to make a flexible lens for atoms [116]). Generally, adiabatic potentials are so versatile and varied in geometry that we think there may be significant applications in the future.…”

Optical lenses for atomic beams

“…Already in 1978 Ashkin's group demonstrated neutral atom beam focusing using the optical dipole force [6]. Many techniques to focus atomic beams have been tried since: mirrors [7,8], transmission gratings [9,10], holographic reflection-gratings [11], electro-static lenses [12], magnetic lenses [1,13,14,15,16] or magnetic mirrors [17], nano-apertures [18,19,20], and optical setups [1,6,18,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31] relying on the optical dipole force [1,5].…”