Chiral force of guided light on an atom

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the force exerted by guided light on an atom near an ultrathin fiber is direction-dependent due to the light's chirality, enabling novel control of atomic motion.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of chiral light-atom interaction where the force depends on light propagation direction, a novel mechanism for atomic manipulation.

Findings

Force magnitude varies with light propagation direction.

Chirality arises from directional Rabi frequency and spontaneous emission.

Provides a new method for controlling atomic motion near fibers.

Abstract

We calculate the force of a near-resonant guided light field of an ultrathin optical fiber on a two-level atom. We show that, if the atomic dipole rotates in the meridional plane, the magnitude of the force of the guided light depends on the field propagation direction. The chirality of the force arises as a consequence of the directional dependencies of the Rabi frequency of the guided driving field and the spontaneous emission from the atom. This provides a unique method for controlling atomic motion in the vicinity of an ultrathin fiber.