Experimental Studies of Atoms in Confined Spaces (Physics)

我们将通过实验研究被金属边界限制在一个小空间内的原子的性质。这项工作涉及到在这样的空间中激发原子的自发辐射和表面附近原子所经历的范德华力的修正。一个光学驻波将被引入空间，对原子施加额外的光学力。这将允许将原子的位置控制在远小于一微米的范围内，并进行精确的原子表面研究。这项研究与当前原子和激光物理学中的几个感兴趣的领域密切相关。首先，这项工作可以在量子电动力学的背景下被视为对电磁真空态和原子自能(腔QED)的理解的测试。自发光发射已经被抑制，这种对光学谐振腔量子噪声的控制必然会有有趣的应用。第二，这个项目涉及利用光捕获和冷却原子的主动领域。在一维空间中实现量子有限限制是可能的，这将给出对原子的壮观控制，并允许一些有趣的量子力学演示。

The properties of atoms confined to a small space by metallic boundaries will be studied experimentally. This work concerns the modification of the spontaneous emission from excited atoms in such a space and the Van der Waals force experienced by atoms near surfaces. An optical standing wave will be introduced into the space to exert an additional optical force on the atoms. This will allow the control of the position of the atoms to much less than a micron and to perform precise atom - surface studies. This research is closely related to several fields of current interest in atomic and laser physics. First, this work my be viewed in the context of quantum electrodynamics as a test of the understanding of the electromagnetic vacuum state and of the atomic self-energy (cavity QED). Spontaneous optical emission has been suppressed and such control over the quantum noise of a optical resonator is bound to have interesting applications. Second, this project relates to the active field of trapping and cooling of atoms using light. It may be possible to achieve quantum limited confinement in one dimension which will give spectacular control over the atoms as well as permitting some interesting demonstrations of quantum mechanics.