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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Scattering, velocity bunching, and self-localization of atoms in a light field

A. P. Kazantsev, Lev Davidovič Landau, Gregory I. Surdutovich, D. O. Chudesnikov, Valery P. Yakovlev

Published Nov 1, 1989• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Coherent and incoherent manifestations of light-pressure effects are considered. A simple analytical solution of the quantum problem of atomic scattering in a standing-wave field for arbitrarily large numbers of spontaneous transitions is obtained. Attractors of the light-pressure force in a strong field, i.e., the critical velocities at which a bunching of the particles takes place, are found. The one-dimensional problem of self-localization of an atomic ensemble in the field of counterpropagating waves is treated for a gas with an arbitrary optical thickness.

DOI
10.1364/josab.6.002130

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Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics•Feb 1, 1998•1 citation
Coherent and incoherent manifestations of light-pressure effects are considered. A simple analytical solution of the quantum problem of atomic scattering in a standing-wave field for arbitrarily large numbers of spontaneous transitions is obtained. Attractors of the light-pressure force in a strong field, i.e., the critical velocities at which a bunching of the particles takes place, are found. The one-dimensional problem of self-localization of an atomic ensemble in the field of counterpropagating waves is treated for a gas with an arbitrary optical thickness.
Kinetic phenomena of resonant-particle motion in a standing-light-wave field are theoretically discussed. The light-pressure force and its fluctuations are found in a wide range of the parameters: the atomic velocity, the intensity, and the detuning of the field. There are two characteristic regions of the detunings in a strong field: the adiabatic region and the region of Landau–Zener resonances. The quantum fluctuations of the inner atomic state that are due to the Landau–Zener transitions result, specifically, in the interference effect in the mean light-pressure force. The effects of the spatial grating of the cooled atoms, the particle velocity bunching, and the recoil-effect dependence on the nonlinear absorption are considered for slow particles. The effect of optical pumping by linearly polarized light taking into account the recoil effect is fundamentally new. Because of this effect, the anisotropic resonance medium becomes gyrotropic.
The influence of the resonance light pressure on the motion of atoms and molecules is studied. A kinetic equation has been obtained describing the action on particles of both the mean force of light pressure and its fluctuations. The forces that are considered are due to spontaneous and stimulated transitions and also to a certain combination thereof. The kinetic equation is used to describe the scattering of atoms in conditions close to the experimental ones [16]. The temperature of atoms cooled in a standing wave with the aid of the force of light pressure of the combined type has also been found.
A theoretical analysis is given of the interaction of a laser field consisting of two orthogonal, linearly polarized, low-power standing waves, with an ensemble of J=1/2 ground-state atoms. The atoms are assumed to move with velocities below the Doppler limit of laser cooling. The two-dimensional light-induced atomic force is calculated for the specific case when the field polarization directions differ by \ensuremath{\pi}/2. The effective optical-pumping time is shown to increase strongly near the nodes of the laser field, leading to a force that can be much larger than that in the one-dimensional case. The force is not isotropic, and can lead to the bunching of the atoms in velocity space.
The scattering of atoms on the standing wave is considered. A phenomenon of the atomic bunching along the standing wave is investigated. The multiple time scale perturbation method is used to obtain analytical results for the atomic space distribution. These results are in good agreement with the exact numerical evaluation. The simple expressions for the evolution of the atomic populations of the upper and lower levels are given and the possibility of creation of a large population inversion is reported.
The scattering of an atom in the field of counterpropagating light waves is studied under conditions such that the state of the atom is a superposition of the ground and excited states. For the case in which this superposition is created by the field of a traveling wave, the momentum distribution function of the atom after scattering by a standing wave is found analytically in the approximation of a short interaction time, when the atom’s motion can be neglected. Longer interactions of the atom with the field are studied numerically. We also consider the case of counterpropagating light waves consisting of Gaussian or supergaussian pulses.