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Physical Review A

Adiabatic scattering of atoms by a standing laser wave

Andrey R. Kolovsky, H. J. Korsch

Published Jun 1, 1997• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study the scattering of an atom beam adiabatically passing through a standing wave laser beam. Contrary to Bragg or Raman-Nath scattering, the adiabatic scattering has an underlying classical process and can be conveniently described by conservation of an adiabatic integral. We discuss the adiabatic scattering in both the classical and quantum approaches as well as the transition from quantum to classical regimes.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.55.4433

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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America•Jan 1, 1990•0 citations
We study the scattering of an atom beam adiabatically passing through a standing wave laser beam. Contrary to Bragg or Raman-Nath scattering, the adiabatic scattering has an underlying classical process and can be conveniently described by conservation of an adiabatic integral. We discuss the adiabatic scattering in both the classical and quantum approaches as well as the transition from quantum to classical regimes.
We study the scattering of an atomic beam slowly passing through a standing laser wave with an amplitude periodically modulated in time. The formal analysis of the problem involves the theory of interacting nonlinear resonances, developed earlier in the field of quantum chaos. Two different diffraction regimes are distinguished: a quasiregular regime, where the atoms are Bragg-like scattered by a primary or secondary nonlinear resonance, and a chaotic regime, where the scattering can be regarded as (quasi)random.
A model of the asymmetric coherent scattering process (caused by initial atomic wave-packet splitting in the momentum space) taking place at the large detuning and adiabatic course of interaction for an effective two-state system interacting with a standing wave of laser radiation is discussed. We show that the same form of initial wave-packet splitting may lead to different, in general, diffraction patterns for opposite, adiabatic and resonant, regimes of the standing-wave scattering. We show that the scattering of the Gaussian wave packet in the adiabatic case presents refraction (a limiting form of the asymmetric scattering) in contrast to the bi-refringence (the limiting case of the high-order narrowed scattering) occurring in the resonant scattering.
The diffraction of a coherent, stationary, beam of atoms from a standing wave of light is considered. Particular attention is paid to long interaction times for which the motion of the atoms inside the light field must be taken into account. This is the regime of dynamical diffraction, and is treated within the framework of a set of differential difference equations due to Raman and Nath. The popular Raman-Nath approximation, in which the kinetic energy imparted to the atoms by the light wave is ignored, is no longer valid and the full equations must be solved. When the interaction between the atoms and the light is very weak then few beams are produced. To describe spontaneous emission from the atom one can invoke a complex potential as a model for dissipation. If the atom beam is obliquely incident one finds anomalously high transmission close to the Bragg angles which is the physical manifestation of degeneracies in non-Hermitian matrices. The classical limit is approached when the atom-light interaction is strong, producing many beams. The classical dynamics (geometrical rays) reveal that the farfield intensity pattern is dominated by caustics. These proliferate with increasing interaction distance. Two methods are presented for analytically treating the semiclassical limit of the wave mechanics. The first begins with W.K.B. solutions to the continuised Raman-Nath equations. Mapping onto parabolic cylinder functions removes the spurious divergences of the W.K.B. solutions, giving eigenvectors which are uniformly valid for all scattering angles and may be summed to give the wavefunction. The second method transforms the original W.K.B. eigensum, using the Poisson summation formula, giving a new sum, each term of which has classical significance. This method shows that wave theory decorates the classical caustics with an Airy function intensity profile, as predicted by catastrophe theory.
We study the amplification of a resonant standing-wave light field due to the interaction with a beam of monovelocity two-level atoms moving in the Raman-Nath regime and in the Bragg regime. The atomic density is low so that, at most, one atom is inside the cavity at a time. This system is very similar to the well-known micromaser but it is operating in the optical region of the field frequencies. Therefore, the situation corresponds to a microlaser. Unlike the micromaser system, the momentum transfer between the atoms and photons in the microlaser essentially effects the center-of-mass motion of the atoms and the evolution of the field.
Atoms undergo two types of momentum changes as they pass across a near-resonant standing wave. First, their transverse momentum spreads. Second, if the atoms cross the field at an angle, they undergo Bragg scattering from the periodic structure provided by the wave. Classically, this behavior can be understood in terms of traveling waves: the atom catalyzes the transfer of momentum from one traveling wave to the other, thereby changing its own transverse momentum. In the quantum regime, however, there is an essential difference between scattering by two running waves and by a standing wave. With running waves, we can in principle know which of the two waves has exchanged a unit of momentum with the atom. In contrast, a standing wave is an inseparable quantum unit whose average momentum remains zero at all times. This unity is imposed by the fixed mirrors that establish the standing wave. These act as infinite sinks of momentum. Quantum mechanics forbids one even in principle to determine, via a field measurement from which traveling wave the atom picked up its momentum. To demonstrate this point, we discuss the diffraction and deflection of an atom in both a standing wave and a superposition of two counter-propagating running waves.