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Physical Review Letters

Collective behavior of optically trapped neutral atoms

Thad G Walker, David W. Sesko, Carl Wieman

Published Jan 22, 1990• 352 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We describe experiments that show collective behavior in clouds of optically trapped neutral atoms. This collective behavior is demonstrated in a variety of observed spatial distributions with abrupt bistable transitions between them. These distributions include stable rings of atoms around a small core and clumps of atoms rotating about the core. The size of the cloud grows rapidly as more atoms are loaded into it, implying a strong long-range repulsive force between the atoms. We show that a force arising from radiation trapping can explain much of this behavior.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.64.408

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We describe experiments that show collective behavior in clouds of optically trapped neutral atoms.This collective behavior is demonstrated in a variety of observed spatial distributions with abrupt bistable transitions between them.These distributions include stable rings of atoms around a small core and clumps of atoms rotating about the core.The size of the cloud grows rapidly as more atoms are loaded into it, implying a strong long-range repulsive force between the atoms.We show that a force arising from radiation trapping can explain much of this behavior.

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We describe experiments that show collective behavior in clouds of optically trapped neutral atoms. This collective behavior is demonstrated in a variety of observed spatial distributions with abrupt bistable transitions between them. These distributions include stable rings of atoms around a small core and clumps of atoms rotating about the core. The size of the cloud grows rapidly as more atoms are loaded into it, implying a strong long-range repulsive force between the atoms. We show that a force arising from radiation trapping can explain much of this behavior.
We describe experiments that show collective behavior in clouds of optically trapped neutral atoms.This collective behavior is demonstrated in a variety of observed spatial distributions with abrupt bistable transitions between them.These distributions include stable rings of atoms around a small core and clumps of atoms rotating about the core.The size of the cloud grows rapidly as more atoms are loaded into it, implying a strong long-range repulsive force between the atoms.We show that a force arising from radiation trapping can explain much of this behavior.
Collective motions are observed in optically thick clouds of optically trapped atoms.1,2 Manifestations of the collective behavior include multiple bistable transitions between spherical and ring-shaped spatial distributions of the atoms and clumps of atoms rotating about a core. Detailed studies of the spherical spatial distributions are consistent with predictions of a simple model of long-range interatomic forces that arise from the radiation fields of the atoms. In particular, radiation trapping produces a long-range repulsion between the atoms. Again, a simple model that includes this repulsion as well as a vortex force produced by appropriate alignment of the laser beams reproduces many features of the rings, including approximate sizes and orbital frequencies. The model does not, however, explain the bistable transitions or the orbiting clumps of atoms. Supported by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
A classical collective behavior is observed in the spatial distributions of a cloud of optically trapped neutral atoms. They include extended uniform-density ellipsoids, rings of atoms around a small central ball, and clumps of atoms orbiting a central core. The distributions depend sensitively on the number of atoms and the alignment of the laser beams. Abrupt bistable transitions between different distributions are seen. This system is studied in detail, and much of this behavior can be explained by the incorporation of long-range interactions between the atoms in the equation of equilibrium. It is shown how attenuation and multiple scattering of the incident photons lead to these interactions.
We have studied the behavior of clouds of neutral atoms contained in a spontaneous force optical trap. Because of the low temperatures of the atoms (<1 mK) we have observed a variety of new phenomena which involve both short and long range interactions between the atoms. The short range interactions are manifested in two body collisions which are notable because of the very long collision times. This time scale causes the dynamics to be profoundly affected by absorption and spontaneous emission during the collision. An interesting assortment of collective behaviors are observed when the trapped atom cloud contains more than 105 atoms. These include the expansion of the cloud as the number is increased and dramatic changes in the distribution of the atoms at higher numbers. We can explain much of the collective behavior using a simple model that includes a 1/r2 force between the atoms arising from the multiple scattering of photons. Finally, we discuss the optical trapping of atoms directly from a low pressure vapor in a small glass cell. We have used these optically trapped atoms to load a magnetostatic trap in the same cell. This provided a high density sample of atoms with a temperature of less than 2 μK.
The multiple scattering of light in a gas of ultra cold atoms is responsible for many exciting features observed in magneto-optical traps including the collective behavior forced by a Coulomb like potential. This field also induces plasma like phenomena in the cloud which allows the treatment of the system as a one component trapped plasma. With a fluid description and casting the thermodynamical behavior in the form of a polytropic equation of state we investigate the equilibrium profiles of rotating clouds and its dependence on the experiment characteristics. Numerical solutions predict the formation of stable orbital modes both in rotating and non rotating clouds. We also investigate the normal modes on such rotating systems.