TY - JOUR T1 - Subwavelength-width optical tunnel junctions for ultracold atoms JF - Physical Review A Y1 - 2016 A1 - Jendrzejewski, F. A1 - Eckel, S. A1 - Tiecke, T. G. A1 - G. Juzeliƫnas A1 - Campbell, G. K. A1 - Jiang, Liang A1 - Alexey V. Gorshkov AB -

We propose a method for creating far-field optical barrier potentials for ultracold atoms with widths that are narrower than the diffraction limit and can approach tens of nanometers. The reduced widths stem from the nonlinear atomic response to control fields that create spatially varying dark resonances. The subwavelength barrier is the result of the geometric scalar potential experienced by an atom prepared in such a spatially varying dark state. The performance of this technique, as well as its applications to the study of many-body physics and to the implementation of quantum-information protocols with ultracold atoms, are discussed, with a focus on the implementation of tunnel junctions.

VL - 94 U4 - 063422 UR - http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.063422 CP - 6 U5 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.94.063422 ER -