Real-time control of the periodicity of a standing wave: an optical accordion.
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.
Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. tcli@physics.utexas.edu
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Li
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Kelkar
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Medellin
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Raizen
D003198:Computer Simulation; D003199:Computer Systems; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008846:Micromanipulation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D052898:Optical Tweezers; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*