@article{2018-robens-alberti-phys-rev-app-v9-p034016, Abstract = {

We present a novel approach to precisely synthesize arbitrary polarization states of light with a high modulation bandwidth. Our approach consists in superimposing two laser light fields with the same wavelength, but with opposite circular polarizations, where the phase and amplitude of each light field are individually controlled. We find that the polarization-synthesized beam reaches a degree of polarization of 99.99%, which is mainly limited by static spatial variations of the polarization state over the beam profile. We also find that the depolarization caused by temporal fluctuations of the polarization state is about two orders of magnitude smaller. In a recent work, Robens et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 065302 (2017)] demonstrated an application of the polarization synthesizer to create two independently controllable optical lattices, which trap atoms depending on their internal spin state. We here use ultracold atoms in polarization-synthesized optical lattices to give an independent, in situ demonstration of the performance of the polarization synthesizer.

}, Author = {Robens, C. AND Brakhane, S. AND Alt, W. AND Meschede, D. AND Zopes, J. AND Alberti, A.}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. Applied}, Pages = {034016}, Title = {{Fast, high-precision optical polarization synthesizer for ultracold-atom experiments}}, Volume = {9}, Year = {2018} }