From Single Atoms to Engineered “Super-Atoms”: Interfacing Photons and Atoms in Free Space

Figure 2

Schematic drawing of the mode converter. Laser beam with radial polarization has an optical singularity in the center of the beam and therefore has intensity minimum in the center (arbitrary units for intensity). Shown is a radial cut through the beam and throughout the parabolic mirror. The dashed line denotes the optical axis. The color lines are exemplary traces of incident light beams that travel parallel to the optical axis. The beams are then reflected by the mirror and meet at the mirror focus. The local polarization of the traces is denoted by the arrows perpendicular to the trace propagation. Since there is vanishing light intensity along the optical axis but high intensity in the perpendicular direction; the field pattern in the focus of the mirror resembles the atomic dipole pattern for the transition; see Figure 1(b).