Dynamics of Cold Atoms Crossing a One-Way Barrier

Abstract

We implemented an optical one-way potential barrier that allows ultracold $^{87}$Rb atoms to transmit through when incident on one side of the barrier but reflect from the other. This asymmetric barrier is a realization of Maxwell's demon, which can be employed to produce phase-space compression and has implications for cooling atoms and molecules not amenable to standard laser-cooling techniques. The barrier comprises two focused, Gaussian laser beams that intersect the focus of a far-off-resonant, single-beam optical dipole trap that holds the atoms. The main barrier beam presents a state-dependent potential to incident atoms, while the repumping barrier beam optically pumps atoms to a trapped state. We investigated the robustness of the barrier asymmetry to changes in the barrier beam separation, the initial atomic potential energy, the intensity of the second beam, and the detuning of the first beam. We performed simulations of the atomic dynamics in the presence of the barrier, showing that the initial three dimensional momentum distribution plays a significant role, and that light-assisted collisions are likely the dominant loss mechanism. We also carefully examined the relationship to Maxwell's demon and explicitly accounted for the apparent decrease in entropy for our particular system.