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Applied Physics B

Three-dimensional spatial diffusion in optical molasses

Theodore Hodapp, Christoph Gerz, Cyril Furtlehner, Christoph Ira Westbrook, William D. Phillips, Jean Dalibard

Published Jan 1, 1995• 68 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/bf01135855

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We study theoretically the spatial diffusion (transport) of two-level atoms in one- and two-dimensional optical molasses derived from counterpropagating laser beams. We use both quantum Monte Carlo and semiclassical methods to study the microscopic characteristics of the atomic motion and their effect on the macroscopic behavior of the spatial distribution. We find that there exists a certain critical depth of the optical potential below which the atomic trajectories show L\'evy flights in space that last on a definite time scale (L\'evy walks). This behavior leads to a transition from Gaussian spatial diffusion to anomalous diffusion while crossing this critical potential depth. We show that only atoms with very high momentum are responsible for these L\'evy walks. This observation allows us to predict the critical parameters via a semiclassical Fokker-Planck equation approach. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
We present an analytical treatment of the force on a two-level atom interacting with a three-dimensional optical molasses. We show that, for small misalignment of the molasses light fields, corresponding to the so-called supermolasses configuration, there can be a dynamically induced stabilization of the atomic motion. This stabilization increases the time required for the atom to diffuse out of the molasses region and therefore provides a novel explanation of experimental observations. We describe the stabilization effect by analogy with the stabilization of the Kapitza pendulum, which is subject to a harmonic modulation of the pendulum pivot point.