Quantum dynamics with laser-cooled atoms

Paul Rudy

Wesley W. Erickson, D. Steck

Brian P. Timmons

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this research was to use laser cooling techniques to cool a sample of rubidium 87 atoms and pulse the cold atoms with an off-resonant standing wave of light. Among the objectives of the study was to understand the parameters needed to place the cold atoms in a quantum accelerator mode and to compare with experiments performed with cesium 133 atoms. A vacuum system and optical system were designed and built to produce a sample of laser cooled rubidium 87 atoms.

William D. Phillips

Soma Shiraki, Eli Barkai, Takuma Akimoto

Laser cooling of atomic motion enables advances in quantum information and precision metrology. However, the spatial spreading of subrecoil-laser-cooled atoms-crucial for understanding cooling mechanisms and atomic confinement-remains largely unexplored. Here, we analyze anomalous diffusion in subrecoil-laser-cooled atoms, where a velocity-dependent fluorescence rate R(v)∝|v|^{α} governs transport properties. By tuning α, we uncover transitions between normal, subdiffusive, and superdiffusive regimes. Notably, at α=3/2, diffusion is minimized, leading to optimal atomic confinement. We further identify a conceptual link between subrecoil laser cooling and the Pomeau-Manneville map from nonlinear dynamics, revealing that anomalous diffusion can generically exhibit a nontrivial minimum in spatial spreading-even across seemingly unrelated physical systems.

Xiang-Yao Wu, Baijun Zhang, H. J. Yang +6 more