Optical Bloch Oscillations in a One-Dimensional Atomic Lattice

Chih-Chieh Lin^1*, Shin-Tza Wu¹, Ming-Shien Chang², Ping-Yi Wen¹, Dian-Jiun Han¹

¹Department of Physics, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan
²Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

* Presenter:Chih-Chieh Lin, email:wayne720106@gmail.com

We demonstrate optical Bloch oscillations (OBO) in a one-dimensional (1D) lattice of cesium atoms, utilizing the nonlinear optical Kerr effect. We measured the evolution of OBO in the atomic lattice along a refractive index gradient and mapped the OBO movement to the first Brillouin zone (FBZ). Additionally, we observed Zener tunneling of optical waves, which appears as spatially-resolved wave packets across the refractive index gradient.

Keywords: optical Bloch oscillation, atomic lattice in the cesium vapor, nonlinear optical Kerr effect, warming atoms, Zener tunneling