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Physical Review A

Correlation-function approach to the momentum diffusion of atoms moving in standing waves

G. S. Agarwal, Klaus Mølmer

Published Jun 1, 1993• 13 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider the momentum diffusion of atoms moving in a standing-wave laser field. We show how the correlation-function approach as originally applied to atoms at rest can be generalized to derive the velocity dependence of the momentum diffusion coefficient in standing waves, and that it gives results in agreement with the transport-equation approach to laser cooling. As an example we apply our calculations to determine the achievements of laser cooling in intense fields where cooling may occur around a nonvanishing velocity. Here we obtain temperatures which are 30% lower than the corresponding minimum obtained around zero velocity. Our explicit calculations involve usage of the optical Bloch equations, the quantum regression theorem, and the matrix continued-fraction method.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.47.5158

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We consider the momentum diffusion of atoms moving in a standing-wave laser field. We show how the correlation-function approach as originally applied to atoms at rest can be generalized to derive the velocity dependence of the momentum diffusion coefficient in standing waves, and that it gives results in agreement with the transport-equation approach to laser cooling. As an example we apply our calculations to determine the achievements of laser cooling in intense fields where cooling may occur around a nonvanishing velocity. Here we obtain temperatures which are 30% lower than the corresponding minimum obtained around zero velocity. Our explicit calculations involve usage of the optical Bloch equations, the quantum regression theorem, and the matrix continued-fraction method.
The momentum diffusion coefficient, as a function of position and velocity, is discussed for two-state atoms travelling through a standing-wave laser field. Equations leading to the force and diffusion coefficient have been obtained by Minogin. The authors present an alternative derivation, based on moments of the Wigner function and give numerical solutions in terms of matrix continued fractions. In strong fields, the discussion is supplemented by a derivation of the diffusion coefficient within the dressed-atom basis, and a picture of the diffusion mechanism emerges which is quite different from the one at low intensities. Calculated forces and diffusion coefficients are used in a Fokker-Planck equation to obtain stationary atomic velocity distributions.
This work discusses the effect of a high-intensity standing wave laser field on the motion of neutral atoms moving with a relatively high velocity. The analysis involves a detailed calculation of the force acting on the atoms and the calculation of the diffusion tensor associated with the fluctuations of the quantum force operator. The high-intensity laser field limit corresponds to a Rabi frequency much greater than the natural rate of the atom. The general results are valid for any atomic velocity. Results are then specialized to the case of slow and fast atoms where the Doppler shift of the laser frequency due to the atomic motion is either smaller or larger than the natural decay rate of the atom. The results obtained for the force and diffusion tensor are applied to a particular ideal experiment that studies the evolution of a fast atomic beam crossing a high-intensity laser beam. The theories developed previously, for a similar laser configuration, discuss only the low atomic velocities case and not the more realistic case of fast atoms. Here, an approximate solution of the equation for the distribution is obtained. Starting from the approximate distribution function, the deflection angle and dispersion angle for themore » atomic beam with respect to the free motion are calculated.« less
We investigate the force on a two-level atom interacting with intense monochromatic laser fields which are combinations of standing and traveling waves. We present a continued-fraction solution to the optical Bloch equations. Using this solution to calculate the force on an atom, we have examined the slowing and cooling of a thermal Na atomic beam. We find that the addition of a traveling wave to an intense standing wave can significantly improve the slowing rate and simultaneously decrease the final velocity of the cooled beam.
We study numerically the evolution of the velocity distribution of atoms under the action of the bichromatic force. The comparison of the time dependencies of the distribution width and the average acceleration of atoms reveals the correlation of these quantities. We show that the estimation of the momentum diffusion coefficient on the basis of the analogy between the interaction of atoms with the counterpropagating bichromatic waves and the interaction of atoms with the counterpropagating sequences of the $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulses roughly corresponds to the results of numerical calculations. To separate the influence of the momentum diffusion on the evolution of atomic momentum distribution from the influence of the time-dependent Doppler shift, we study the motion of a ``heavy'' atom, for which the velocity change during the interaction of an atom with the field can be neglected. Provided that the parameters of the atom-field interaction are optimal, we show that the momentum diffusion coefficient is proportional to the intensity of the laser radiation. We used the Monte Carlo wave-function method for the numerical simulation of the atomic motion.
The effect of the dipole force and its fluctuation on the motion of Li atoms in an intense, one-dimensional, near-resonant standing light wave has been investigated, both theoretically and experimentally. The duration of the interaction of the atoms with the standing wave was varied from several tens of spontaneous emission lifetimes to several hundred. For a standing wave frequency blue-detuned from resonance, diffusive heating can dominate the time-averaged dissipative dipole force so that there is no steady-state momentum distribution. However, for sufficiently large blue detunings the rate of diffusion is so slow that the resulting distribution approaches a quasi-steady state. For red detunings the diffusion is balanced with the force and a true steady-state is achieved. A Monte Carlo method based on the density matrix equations in the dressed-state representation is applied to simulate the atomic motion. The dynamics of atom channeling is studied. One of the important applications of this investigation is adiabatic laser cooling of atoms. Lithium atoms channeled in the nodes of an intense standing wave radiation field are cooled to near the recoil limit, a single photon's momentum hbark\\hbar{k}hbark, by adiabatically reducing the radiation intensity. The final momentum distribution has a narrow component with a root mean squared momentum of 2 hbark\\hbar{k}hbark in one-dimension. The data are compared with the results obtained by the Monte Carlo method. This process may be useful for cooling and increasing the phase-space density of atoms confined in a magnetic trap.
The dressed atom approach is used to investigate the evolution of atoms moving in an intense standing wave laser field. When coherences between the dressed states can be neglected, a simple expression is obtained for the radiative force acting on the atoms. The Landau-Zener model, well-known in the theory of slow atomic collisions, is here used to include coherences in an analytic treatment. At high velocities, where the simplest approach breaks down, the results are in good agreement with exact numerical calculations. Applications outside the field of laser cooling are discussed.