Abstract
Atomic beam focusing by an atomic microlens formed by the optical field diffracted from a circular aperture in a metallic screen is considered for an aperture diameter smaller than the wavelength of the field. Analytic expressions are derived for the dipole gradient force acting on an atom in the field of diffracted radiation. It is shown that the action of the gradient force makes it possible to focus the atomic beam into a spot with a diameter on the order of a few nanometers. Numerical estimates are obtained for the focusing properties of the atomic microlens in the model describing the dipole interaction of Rb atoms with laser radiation in the vicinity of the D line.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. E. Bjorkholm, R. R. Freeman, A. Ashkin, and D. B. Pearson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 41, 1361 (1978).
J. E. Bjorkholm, R. R. Freeman, A. Ashkin, and D. B. Pearson, Opt. Lett. 5, 111 (1980).
V. I. Balykin and V. S. Letokhov, Opt. Commun. 64, 151 (1987).
V. I. Balykin and V. S. Letokhov, Sov. Phys. JETP 67, 78 (1988).
G. M. Gallatin and P. L. Gould, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8, 502 (1991).
J. J. McClelland and M. R. Scheinfein, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8, 1974 (1991).
M. Prentiss, G. Timp, N. Bigelow, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 60, 1027 (1992).
J. L. Cohen, B. Dubetsky, and P. R. Berman, Phys. Rev. A 60, 4886 (1999).
T. Sleator, T. Pfau, V. Balykin, and J. Mlynek, Appl. Phys. B 54, 375 (1992).
G. Timp, R. E. Behringer, D. M. Tennant, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 1636 (1992).
J. J. McClelland, R. E. Scholten, E. C. Palm, and R. J. Celotta, Science 262, 877 (1993).
R. W. McGowan, D. M. Giltner, and S. A. Lee, Opt. Lett. 20, 2535 (1995).
R. Gupta, J. J. McClelland, P. Marte, and R. J. Celotta, Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 4689 (1996).
R. J. Celotta, R. Gupta, R. E. Scholten, and J. J. McClelland, J. Appl. Phys. 79, 6079 (1996).
U. Drodofsky, M. Drewsen, T. Pfau, et al., Microelectron. Eng. 30, 383 (1996).
M. Mutzel, D. Haubrich, and D. Meschede, Appl. Phys. B 70, 689 (2000).
V. I. Balykin, V. G. Minogin, and V. S. Letokhov, Phys. Rep. 63, 1429 (2000).
V. Balykin, V. Klimov, and V. Letokhov, J. Phys. 4, 1981 (1994).
V. I. Balykin, V. S. Letokhov, and V. V. Klimov, Pis’ma Zh. Éksp. Teor. Fiz. 59, 896 (1994) [JETP Lett. 59, 863 (1994)].
H. A. Bethe, Phys. Rev. 66, 163 (1944).
C. J. Bouwkamp, Philips Res. Rep. 5, 321 (1950).
C. J. Bouwkamp, Philips Res. Rep. 5, 401 (1950).
J. Meixner and W. Andrejewski, Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 7, 157 (1950).
W. Andrejewski, Z. Angew. Phys. 5, 178 (1953).
Y. Nomura and S. Katsura, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 10, 285 (1955).
Y. Levitan, J. Appl. Phys. 60, 1577 (1986).
V. V. Klimov and V. S. Letokhov, Opt. Commun. 106, 151 (1994).
S. Chang and V. Minogin, Phys. Rep. 365/2, 65 (2002).
E. Moreno, A. I. Fernandes-Dominguez, J. I. Cirac, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 170406 (2005).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Original Russian Text © V.I. Balykin, V.G. Minogin, S.N. Rudnev, 2006, published in Zhurnal Eksperimental’noĭ i Teoreticheskoĭ Fiziki, 2006, Vol. 130, No. 5, pp. 784–795.