a Key Laboratory for Optical and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Ministry of Education, Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; b Department of Physics, Suzhou University, Suzhou 215006, China
Abstract We investigate the diffraction characteristics of an incident Gaussian beam cut by a straight edge bounding a semi-infinite opaque plane using Kirchhoff scalar wave theory in the Fresnel limit, and propose a new and simple mirror scheme to reflect atoms by using the intensity gradient induced by a blue-detuned semi-Gaussian laser beam. The optical potential of the diffracted light of the knife-cut semi-Gaussian beam for $^{85}$Rb atom and its spontaneous emission probability are calculated and compared with the performance of the evanescent-wave mirror. Our study shows that the optical potential of the diffracted light of the semi-Gaussian beam is far higher than that of the evanescent light wave, and the maximum normal velocity of the incident atoms can be far greater than that of the evanescent light wave under the same parameters, so the blue-detuned semi-Gaussian beam, as a novel atomic mirror, can be used to efficiently reflect cold atoms with a normal velocity of greater than 1 m/s. However, the intensity gradient (force) of the diffracted light of the semi-Gaussian-beam is much smaller than that of the evanescent light wave, so its spontaneous emission probability is greater than that from the evanescent-wave when the normal velocity of incident atoms is greater.
Received: 04 April 2005
Revised: 11 July 2005
Accepted manuscript online:
PACS:
42.60.Jf
(Beam characteristics: profile, intensity, and power; spatial pattern formation)
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 10174050 and 10374029),the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 10434060), and by the Shanghai Priority Academic Discipline and the 211 Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China.
Cite this article:
Zheng Ping (郑萍), Gao Wei-Jian (高伟建), Yin Jian-Ping (印建平) Diffracted field distribution from a knife-edge truncated semi-Gaussian beam as an atomic (molecular) mirror 2006 Chinese Physics 15 116
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