Reconfigurable Optical Lattices for Ultracold Atoms Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Topic No.: N121-100 Topic Title: Reconfigurable Optical Lattices for Ultracold Atoms Proposal No.: N121-100-1146 Firm: AOSense, Inc. 767 N Mary Ave Sunnyvale, California 94085 Contact: Igor Teper Phone: (408) 735-9500 Web Site: www.aosense.com Abstract: AOSense has successfully designed and fabricated numerous cold-atom-based sensors, including lasers, vacuum systems, optomechanics and control electronics. This SBIR topic is well-matched to our experience in developing systems for the manipulation of ultracold atoms. We propose to design and develop a novel optical trap for ultracold atom experiments that will be reconfigurable between a focused-beam trap, a stationary optical lattice, and/or a moving optical lattice. The system will switch between these operational modes at high bandwidth and with no moving parts. Our design will also incorporate a crossed-dipole optical trap for evaporative cooling. In addition to completing detailed system and component level designs, we will perform design validation studies to ensure that the trap will meet the target performance goals and will successfully implement a lattice-based cold atom accelerometer. Benefits: Our work under this proposal to develop a flexible and customizable optical trap architecture for use in a broad range of experiments will help researchers take full advantage of the wide applicability of optical trapping techniques in the field of ultracold atoms. In addition, our work will advance optical-lattice atom interferometry, which holds great promise as a method to reduce the size and increase the dynamic range of ultracold atom sensors while sacrificing little of their excellent sensitivity. Advances that we make in this direction can be incorporated into future atom-based sensors for use in navigation and geophysical exploration. Return