Researchers have encoded a picture of a cat into a single laser beam, demonstrating a simple system that can create detailed images within a beam of light. This technique could be used to more accurately manipulate ultra-cold atoms, which are used to perform simulations of quantum effects.
To trap a cloud of ultra-cold atoms, in order to manipulate them, you have to create what physicists call a potential 鈥� essentially a box that holds the atoms in place. One way to do this is by creating barriers made out of light in what is called an optical potential, or optical trap. and at the University of S茫o Paulo in Brazil have come up with a new way to create optical traps of any shape.
Their method is relatively simple: they shine a laser beam through a device called a spatial light modulator made with liquid crystals. These crystals can be organised using electromagnetic fields, creating a series of what are essentially tiny prisms. By programming the modulator, the researchers manipulated these prisms to create shapes and patterns in the laser beam.
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Ultimately, the idea is that a pattern within a laser beam generated like this could be used to better trap ultra-cold atoms for quantum research.
鈥淚t is very useful to use light to trap these very fragile quantum systems so that you can manipulate them without destroying them,鈥� says Muniz. 鈥淏ut if you put ultra-cold atoms in a potential, it has to be very, very smooth and precise.鈥� Any imperfections in the optical potential could knock the atoms out of the quantum state you are trying to study.
The researchers demonstrated the precision and smoothness of their method by using it to generate a photorealistic image of a cat. Muniz says they figured that because many people encounter pictures of cats or actual cats regularly, any imperfections in the image would be obvious.
鈥淗onestly I don鈥檛 have any good ideas of things you could do with ultra-cold atoms or anything using a picture of a cat, but it鈥檚 sort of a proxy to show that you can do very fine and precise features,鈥� says Muniz. 鈥淲e can make these nice-looking images of cats, but we can also use this system to do quantum simulations of electrons and superconductivity [using trapped ultra-cold atoms].鈥�
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