Quantum technologies

We have studied nonlinear absorption from the In P1/2,3/2 ground-state doublet in a resistively heated high-temperature cell and a hollow cathode lamp. Using probe and pump lasers at 410 and 451 nm, respectively, absorption spectra with nonlinear properties caused by saturated absorption, coherent dark resonances, and optical pumping are observed. A theoretical description in terms of a density-matrix theory agrees very well with the observed spectra and identifies optical pumping as a dominating process of broadening in the stepwise contribution rather than velocity-changing collisions. Our experiments suggest that the theory used here is widely applicable in saturation spectroscopy on three-level Λ systems.

We demonstrate magnetic field enabled optical forces on a neutral indium atomic beam in a light field consisting of five frequencies. The role of dark magnetic ground state sublevels is studied and enables us to cool the atomic beam transversely to near the Doppler limit with laser frequencies tuned above the atomic resonance. The effect of laser cooling can be explained with transient effects in the light potential created by the standing wave light field where the atoms are optically pumped into the dark states and recycled by Larmor precession.

Resist-assisted atom lithography with group III elements, specifically with gallium and indium, is demonstrated. Self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of nonanethiols prepared on thin sputtered gold films were exposed to a beam of neutral gallium and indium atoms through a physical mask. The interaction of the Ga and In atoms with the nonanethiol layer, followed by a wet etching process, creates well defined structures on the gold film, with features below 100 nm. The threshold of the lithographic process was estimated by optical methods and found to be around 3 gallium atoms and 12 indium atoms per thiol molecule. Our experiments suggest that resist-assisted atom lithography can be realized with group III elements and possibly extended to new neutral atomic species.

We present saturation and polarization laser spectroscopy experiments of indium vapor with a single color on the 410 nm transition and with two colors at 410 and 451 nm. The spectra observed by polarization spectroscopy are discussed in terms of a quantitative model. The line shapes observed with two-color spectroscopy can phenomenologically be described taking into account hyperfine changing collisions, velocity changing collisions, and dark resonances. As an application, we actively stabilized a 410 nm diode laser on the resonances of saturation and polarization spectroscopy, and obtained long term frequency stabilities in the 100 kHz–1 MHz range.