Abstract
Recently, Timp et al.1 and McClelland et al.3 demonstrated that channeling a transversely laser-cooled atomic beam through a laser standing wave can be used as a new scheme for submicron scale lithography.1-3 Another useful application of so-produced atomic density gratings is in the study of surface diffusion kinetics of adatoms.4-9 To make the laser standing wave a versatile technique, it is desirable that its effectiveness not depend critically on the spectroscopic specifics of the atom in question. This is achievable if one can work at a completely off-resonant condition with Δω/ω ~ 1. We show that at such a condition, a microsecond laser standing wave with much higher electric fields has the same focusing power as a cw laser standing wave at nearresonance condition with Δω/ω ~10−6. We further propose an experimentally practical setup that implements such a concept and show that even with a transversely uncooled atomic beam, we should be able to produce adatom density gratings on a substrate with good contrast ratios.10 We expect the findings to be applicable to all atoms and atomic clusters.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
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