Two-mode and dual-resonant planar photonic waveguides for efficient guiding and trapping of atoms

Abstract

The trapping of ultracold atoms using two-colour evanescent light waves formed by propagating modes of suspended optical rib waveguides is modelled in different configurations. Reducing the anisotropy of the two-colour evanescent optical dipole potential requires two laser light components with a large frequency difference. The upper frequency is guided in the two lowest transverse waveguide modes and the lower frequency propagates in a single-mode regime. This increases the dipole potential depth in the lateral direction. An additional increase in the optical dipole potential can be achieved by tuning the frequencies of the two modes to two different atomic transitions. When applied to rubidium, the total depth of the corresponding surface optical dipole traps can reach 0.3 mK or above under reasonable conditions.