Atomic Ferris wheel beams

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to generate atomic Ferris wheel beams by diffracting atomic wave-packets from a specially designed spiral light mask, enabling new possibilities in atomic beam shaping.

Contribution

It introduces a novel diffraction scheme using a tailored spiral light mask to produce atomic Ferris wheel beams, expanding atomic beam manipulation techniques.

Findings

Demonstrates how atomic wave-packets can be diffracted into Ferris wheel-shaped beams.

Shows the feasibility of generating vortex atomic beams with specific transverse profiles.

Provides a theoretical framework for creating complex atomic beam structures.

Abstract

We study the generation of atom vortex beams in the case where an atomic wave-packet, moving in free space, is diffracted from a properly tailored light mask with a spiral transverse profile. We show how such a diffraction scheme could lead to the production of an atomic Ferris wheel beam.