Physical Review A

Forces on atoms in a standing-wave laser field

Emilio Fiordilino, Marvin H. Mittleman

Published Jul 1, 1984• 6 citations

Abstract

A previous calculation of forces on atoms in external (dc) fields and in homogeneous traveling-wave laser fields is modified for the case of a standing-wave laser field. The case of intense laser fields, where the Rabi frequency is much greater than the natural decay rate of the atom, is described. A general result for any Doppler shift of the laser frequency due to the atomic motion is obtained. It is specialized to the two cases in which this shift is either much smaller or larger than the natural decay rate. In the first case, we get the same result as that of a previous calculation. The second case has not been discussed previously.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.30.177

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