All-optical transport and compression of ytterbium atoms into the surface of a solid immersion lens

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an all-optical approach to transport, compress, and study ytterbium atoms near a solid immersion lens surface, achieving two-dimensional quantum gas conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel all-optical method for loading and compressing ytterbium atoms into a single layer near a solid immersion lens surface.

Findings

Atoms transported 20 μm below surface

Achieved 120 nm width condensate

Verified 2D quantum gas behavior

Abstract

We present an all-optical method to load 174Yb atoms into a single layer of an optical trap near the surface of a solid immersion lens which improves the numerical aperture of a microscope system. Atoms are transported to a region 20 um below the surface using a system comprised by three optical dipole traps. The "optical accordion" technique is used to create a condensate and compress the atoms to a width of 120 nm and a distance of 1.8 um away from the surface. Moreover, we are able to verify that after compression the condensate behaves as a two-dimensional quantum gas.