Two-step photoionization of cold atoms by two-color evanescent-light waves and application to atom detection with high spatial resolution
✍ Scribed by Kazuhiro Yamamoto; Haruhiko Ito; Kouki Totsuka; Tomohiro Sato
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 171 KB
- Volume
- 265
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0030-4018
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✦ Synopsis
We consider a new scheme of optically ionizing atoms with 10-nm-order spatial resolution. In this method, two-color near-field lights are generated on a narrow slit illuminated by two-color evanescent lights via total-internal reflection of two-wavelength light beams. In order to illustrate the feasibility, we first obtain the ionization cross section from two-step photionization of cold Rb atoms by two-color evanescent lights on a plane surface of a prism. Then, we numerically estimate the ionization efficiency as a function of the slit width using Bethe formula. The scheme is useful for detecting ground-state atoms under less perturbation by scattered light.