Optical dipole traps and atomic waveguides based on Bessel light beams - art. no. 063602

We theoretically investigate the use of Bessel light beams generated using axicons for creating optical dipole traps for cold atoms and atomic wavegui ding. Zeroth-order Bessel beams can be used to produce highly elongated dip ole traps, allowing for the study of one-dimensional trapped gases and real ization of a Tonks gas of impenetrable bosons. First-order Bessel beams are shown to be able to produce tight confined atomic waveguides over centimet er distances.