Diffraction gratings for atom cooling produced by direct laser writing*

We report the use of a direct laser-writing process to fabricate a 2D diffraction grating that can form a magneto-optical trap from a single laser  beam. This approach significantly speeds up the fabrication process of these gratings compared to the conventionally used electron-beam lithography approach [1]. We also discuss the effects of imperfect suppression of higher-order diffractions — arising from the resolution limits of the direct laser writer — on the trapping and cooling region of the MOT.

[1] A surface-patterned chip as a strong source of

ultracold atoms for quantum technologies, C. C. Nshii1, M. Vangeleyn1, J. P. Cotter2, P. F. Griffin, E. A. Hinds, C. N. Ironside, P. See, A. G. Sinclair, E. Riis and A. S. Arnold