Optical dipole micro-trap for atoms based on crossed planar photonic waveguides

Abstract

Optical dipole micro-traps for atoms based on constructive superposition of two-colour evanescent light waves, formed by corresponding optical modes of two crossed suspended photonic rib waveguides, are modelled. The main parameters of the traps for rubidium atoms, such as potential depth, tunnelling rates of atoms from the trap and coherence time of the trapped atoms are estimated. Applications of such traps for quantum memory and quantum logic devices are discussed.