Generation of a blue-detuned optical storage ring by a metasurface and its application in optical trapping of cold molecules

Abstract

A scheme of storage of cold molecules with hollow optical ring generated by the metasurface grating is proposed. The characteristics and intensity distribution related to the ring’s structural parameters alongside the fabrication-error tolerance are theoretically studied. The optical potential and dipole force for the ring to trap magnesium monofluoride (MgF) molecules are also calculated. The dynamical behavior of MgF molecules in the storage ring is simulated by a Monte-Carlo method, which shows that the metasurface-based optical storage ring is applicable to trap molecules and can be an interesting platform for the research of ultracold quantum gases and their quantum-state manipulation.

Point singularity array with metasurfaces

“…Techniques using a single structured beam have been able to produce single blue traps 28 , 30 – 32 , more exotic bottle traps based on acoustic 33 , 34 or ponderomotive 35 forces, and arrays of blue traps in the transverse plane 29 , 36 . The state-of-the-art blue trap array in active use is arguably the quantum gas microscope 37 , which holographically projects a two-dimensional optical lattice into a vacuum cell, thereby achieving thousands of trap sites with individual optical access.…”

Steering photoassociation of cold 85Rb atoms by two-color slowly-turned-on and rapidly-turned-off laser pulses

“…Cold molecules have aroused much interest from researchers [1][2][3][4][5], due to the wide applications in areas such as the measurement of fundamental physical constants [6][7][8], quantum information [9,10] and collision reaction [11][12][13][14]. In order to produce cold molecules, researchers proposed direct and * Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed.…”