On the formation of antihydrogen beams using travelling optical lattices

Abstract

The production of beams of antihydrogen atoms using the dipole force provided by a travelling optical lattice to accelerate a sample of the anti-atoms held in a magnetic gradient atom trap is investigated. By considering current and near-future antihydrogen trapping capabilities we find that useful fluxes of the anti-atoms can be achieved with directional properties that can be manipulated using laser parameters such as pulse duration and frequency chirp rate. Applications of the beams are briefly discussed.

A dual color, frequency, pulse duration and shape agile laser system for particle spectroscopy and manipulation

“…The flexibility and capabilities of the laser system presented here are expected to be useful and potentially enabling for a variety of laser-aided diagnostics and optical manipulation experiments. Particularly, applications with optical lattices [36,38,40,51,52] that are created by the interference of two laser beams can benefit from the rapid frequency chirping capability provided with this all-optical setup, in comparison to the mechanical setups that are usually the current state-of-the-art. Additional applications can also include gas diagnostics such as single shot CRBS [45,53,54], micropropulsion by molecular manipulation [55], optical microlinear deceleration and acceleration [56,57], and particle spectroscopy [58].…”

“…Those designed to perform measurements on neutral gases include, to name but a few, Spontaneous Rayleigh Scattering (SRayS) [11,12], Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) [13][14][15][16][17][18], Coherent Rayleigh-Brillouin Scattering (CRBS) [19][20][21], Spontaneous Raman Scattering (SRS) [22,23], Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30], Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) and Planar LIF (PLIF) [31][32][33][34][35]. In addition to diagnostics, advanced neutral and plasma manipulation concepts such as laser acceleration of neutral species [36], optical deceleration of atomic [37] or molecular species [38,39] to even antihydrogen transport [40], as well as dual laser pulse ignition schemes [41,42], can also benefit from the use of advanced laser sources.…”