Real-time control of the periodicity of a standing wave: an optical accordion

T C Li; H Kelkar; D Medellin; M G Raizen

doi:10.1364/oe.16.005465

Real-time control of the periodicity of a standing wave: an optical accordion

Opt Express. 2008 Apr 14;16(8):5465-70. doi: 10.1364/oe.16.005465.

Authors

T C Li¹, H Kelkar, D Medellin, M G Raizen

Affiliation

¹ Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. tcli@physics.utexas.edu

PMID: 18542649
DOI: 10.1364/oe.16.005465

Abstract

We report an experimental method to create optical lattices with real-time control of their periodicity. We demonstrate a continuous change of the lattice periodicity from 0.96 microm to 11.2 microm in one second, while the center fringe only moves less than 2.7 microm during the whole process. This provides a powerful tool for controlling ultracold atoms in optical lattices, where small spacing is essential for quantum tunneling, and large spacing enables single-site manipulation and spatially resolved detection.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Computer Simulation
Computer Systems
Computer-Aided Design*
Equipment Design
Equipment Failure Analysis
Micromanipulation / instrumentation*
Micromanipulation / methods
Models, Theoretical*
Optical Tweezers*
Optics and Photonics / instrumentation*