Spatially strongly confined atomic excitation via a two dimensional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage.

We consider a method of sub-wavelength superlocalization and patterning of atomic matter waves via a two dimensional stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (2D STIRAP) process. An atom initially prepared in its ground level interacts with a doughnut-shaped optical vortex pump beam and a traveling wave Stokes laser beam with a constant (top-hat) intensity profile in space. The beams are sent in a counter-intuitive temporal sequence, in which the Stokes pulse precedes the pump pulse. The atoms interacting with both the traveling wave and the vortex beam are transferred to a final state through the 2D STIRAP, while those located at the core of the vortex beam remain in the initial state, creating a super-narrow nanometer scale atomic spot in the spatial distribution of ground state atoms. By numerical simulations we show that the 2D STIRAP approach outperforms the established method of coherent population trapping, yielding much stronger confinement of atomic excitation. Numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation show that using such a method one can create 2D bright and dark solitonic structures in trapped Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The method allows one to circumvent the restriction set by the diffraction limit inherent to conventional methods for formation of localized solitons, with a full control over the position and size of nanometer resolution defects.

Azimuthal modulation of electromagnetically induced grating using structured light.

We propose a theoretical scheme for creating a two-dimensional Electromagnetically Induced Grating in a three-level [Formula: see text]-type atomic system interacting with a weak probe field and two simultaneous position-dependent coupling fields-a two dimensional standing wave and an optical vortex beam. Upon derivation of the Maxwell wave equation, describing the dynamic response of the probe light in the atomic medium, we perform numerical calculations of the amplitude, phase modulations and Fraunhofer diffraction pattern of the probe field under different system parameters. We show that due to the azimuthal modulation of the Laguerre-Gaussian field, a two-dimensional asymmetric grating is observed, giving an increase of the zeroth and high orders of diffraction, thus transferring the probe energy to the high orders of direction. The asymmetry is especially seen in the case of combining a resonant probe with an off-resonant standing wave coupling and optical vortex fields. Unlike in previously reported asymmetric diffraction gratings for PT symmetric structures, the parity time symmetric structure is not necessary for the asymmetric diffraction grating presented here. The asymmetry is due to the constructive and destructive interference between the amplitude and phase modulations of the grating system, resulting in complete blocking of the diffracted photons at negative or positive angles, due to the coupling of the vortex beam. A detailed analysis of the probe field energy transfer to different orders of diffraction in the case of off-resonant standing wave coupling field proves the possibility of direct control over the performance of the grating.

Ferris wheel patterning of Rydberg atoms using electromagnetically induced transparency with optical vortex fields.

We study the formation of spatially dependent electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) patterns from pairs of Laguerre-Gauss (LG) modes in an ensemble of cold interacting Rydberg atoms. The EIT patterns can be generated when two-photon detuning does not compensate for the Rydberg level energy shift induced by van der Waals interaction. Depending on the topological numbers of each LG mode, we can pattern dark and bright Ferris-wheel-like structures in the absorption profile with tunable barriers between sites, providing confinement of Rydberg atoms in transverse direction while rendering them transparent to light at specific angular positions. We also show how the atomic density may affect the azimuthal modulation of the absorption profile.