Abstract
In this paper, we present a quantum mechanical treatment of rubidium atoms that are trapped by effective nanoscale potential well, due to a planar array of optical wells. Such an optical system is formed by the interference of two counter-propagating evanescent Hermite-Gaussian (HG) beams, which generate well-defined evanescent modes at a sub-wavelength region near the interface outside of the dielectric. This really facilitates the lateral optical trapping of neutral atoms along the interface in the potential well minima, which is associated with the light-shifts due to the laser. Our quantum observation results prove the existence of several quasi harmonics trapped quantum states in the potential well.