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arXiv:0908.1483 · Physical Review A

Atom cooling by nonadiabatic expansion

Xi Chen, Juan Gonzalo Muga, Adolfo del Campo, A. Ruschhaupt

Published Dec 11, 2009• 15 citations

Abstract

Motivated by the recent discovery that a reflecting wall moving with a square-root-in-time trajectory behaves as a universal stopper of classical particles regardless of their initial velocities, we compare linear-in-time and square-root-in-time expansions of a box to achieve efficient atom cooling. For the quantum single-atom wave functions studied the square-root-in-time expansion presents important advantages: asymptotically it leads to zero average energy whereas any linear-in-time (constant box-wall velocity) expansion leaves a nonzero residual energy, except in the limit of an infinitely slow expansion. For finite final times and box lengths we set a number of bounds and cooling principles which again confirm the superior performance of the square-root-in-time expansion, even more clearly for increasing excitation of the initial state. Breakdown of adiabaticity is generally fatal for cooling with the linear expansion but not so with the square-root-in-time expansion.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.80.063421

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Motivated by the recent discovery that a reflecting wall moving with a square-root-in-time trajectory behaves as a universal stopper of classical particles regardless of their initial velocities, we compare linear-in-time and square-root-in-time expansions of a box to achieve efficient atom cooling. For the quantum single-atom wave functions studied the square-root-in-time expansion presents important advantages: asymptotically it leads to zero average energy whereas any linear-in-time (constant box-wall velocity) expansion leaves a nonzero residual energy, except in the limit of an infinitely slow expansion. For finite final times and box lengths we set a number of bounds and cooling principles which again confirm the superior performance of the square-root-in-time expansion, even more clearly for increasing excitation of the initial state. Breakdown of adiabaticity is generally fatal for cooling with the linear expansion but not so with the square-root-in-time expansion.

We study quantum dynamics of one-electron atom confined in a spherical impenetrable box with time-dependent radius. The behavior of the atomic electron interacting with the moving walls of the box is analyzed by computing average binding energy, average force and pressure. Linearly extending, contracting and harmonically breathing boxes are considered in the non-adiabatic regime i.e. when the wall of the box moves with high velocities. It is shown that linearly extending box leads to de-excitation of the atom, while the rapidly contracting box causes the creation of very high pressure on the atom and transition of the atomic electron into the unbound state. In harmonically breathing box diffusive excitation of atomic electron and ionization may occur in analogy with that for atom in a microwave field.

We examine the evolution of the ground state of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a two-dimensional circular box, the wall of which is initially at rest and then recedes with large and constant speed. The final state of the condensate depends on the rapidity of the expansion of the box. If the number of atoms in the condensate is small compared to the dimensionless speed of the wall, then the condensate becomes a mixture of excitations and follows the expansion of the box, leaving empty though an increasingly larger region between the condensate boundary and the wall. If, on the other hand, the number of atoms is large compared to the dimensionless speed of the wall, then the condensate is always in the ground state and spreads uniformly in all of the expanding box, the condensate boundary always coinciding with the receding wall. Approximate analytic expressions are found for the evolving wave function.

The time evolution and its implications with regard to the approach to equilibrium of a single-particle system in a suddenly expanded box with perfectly reflecting walls is investigated using density-matrix techniques. It is shown that the time-dependent quantities exhibit a periodic behavior which is independent of the initial density matrix as long as the dimensions of the system are finite. The period is found to be $\frac{2\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\hbar}}{{E}_{1}}$ where

{E}_{1}

is the ground-state energy of the expanded system. The continuum approximation is employed to determine the explicit time dependence of the particle density of a system initially in thermal equilibrium. It is found that the density for an expansion into a finite volume decays essentially as

\frac{1}{t}

with small oscillations superposed on this behavior for times ranging from shortly after expansion up to one-fourth the characteristic period.

Single-photon cooling is a recently introduced method to cool atoms and molecules for which standard methods might not be applicable. We numerically examine this method in a two-dimensional wedge trap as well as in a two-dimensional harmonic trap. An element of the method is a small optical box with ``diodic'' walls which moves slowly through the external potential and catches atoms irreversibly. We show that the cooling efficiency of the method can be improved by optimizing the trajectory of this box.