Coherent injecting, extracting, and velocity filtering of neutral atoms in a ring trap via spatial adiabatic passage

TL;DR

This paper presents a coherent, adiabatic method for controlling neutral atoms in a ring trap, enabling efficient injection, extraction, and velocity filtering by exploiting spatial dark states and tunneling couplings.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique using spatial adiabatic passage for precise manipulation of neutral atoms in a ring trap, including velocity filtering capabilities.

Findings

Achieves robust velocity-dependent atomic transfer

Derives explicit conditions for adiabatic passage based on velocity and initial states

Validates the method through numerical simulations with $^{87}$Rb atoms

Abstract

We introduce here a coherent technique to inject, extract, and velocity filter neutral atoms in a ring trap coupled via tunneling to two additional waveguides. By adiabatically following the transverse spatial dark state, the proposed technique allows for an efficient and robust velocity dependent atomic population transfer between the ring and the input/output waveguides. We have derived explicit conditions for the spatial adiabatic passage that depend on the atomic velocity along the input waveguide as well as on the initial population distribution among the transverse vibrational states. The validity of our proposal has been checked by numerical integration of the corresponding two dimensional Schr\"odinger equation with state-of-the-art parameter values for $^{87}$Rb atoms and an optical dipole ring trap.