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The force on an atom moving in an intense standing wave

J. J. Tollett

Published Jan 1, 1991• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Atoms moving in an intense, near resonant standing wave (SW) experience a force along the direction of the SW. This force has been investigated by observing its effect on the transverse velocities of atoms in a thermal beam. When the standing wave is tuned above resonance the atomic beam is collimated and has an increased intensity at the center of the beam. Below resonance, the SW anti-collimates the atomic beam, reducing the central intensity. These effects are due to the interaction between the induced atomic dipole and the inhomogeneous field of the SW. Further investigation shows structure in the transverse velocity distribution of the atomic beam. This structure is due to multiphoton (Doppleron) resonances in the force. Calculations reproduce the dipole force and multiphoton resonance effects and are in good agreement with the data.

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Atoms moving in an intense, near resonant standing wave (SW) experience a force along the direction of the SW. This force has been investigated by observing its effect on the transverse velocities of atoms in a thermal beam. When the standing wave is tuned above resonance the atomic beam is collimated and has an increased intensity at the center of the beam. Below resonance, the SW anti-collimates the atomic beam, reducing the central intensity. These effects are due to the interaction between the induced atomic dipole and the inhomogeneous field of the SW. Further investigation shows structure in the transverse velocity distribution of the atomic beam. This structure is due to multiphoton (Doppleron) resonances in the force. Calculations reproduce the dipole force and multiphoton resonance effects and are in good agreement with the data.
The interaction of a beam of two level atoms with a standing wave laser field has been the subject of extensive investigation in recent times. A standing wave perpendicular to an atomic beam allows the manipulation of the transverse velocity distribution. The interaction of an atomic beam with a strong standing wave laser field has been systematically investigated by both theoretical simulation and experiment in this thesis. We have developed a numerical model based on a continued fraction solution for the light pressure forces to simulate the near perpendicular interaction of an atomic beam with a strong standing wave laser field. The reshaping of the transverse spatial profile of an atomic beam by a perpendicular, near resonant, standing wave laser field is investigated for red detunings using a longitudinal velocity selective detection system. The experimental dependence of the reshaped profile on the longitudinal and transverse atomic velocities agrees well with a continued fraction solution for the light force. In particular, a regime is found where channelling of the atoms near the antinodes of the standing wave produces a central peak in the spatial distribution of the atomic beam in the far field which have also been observed elsewhere.
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.
The interaction of a beam of two level atoms with a standing wave laser light field has been the subject of extensive investigation in recent times. A standing wave perpendicular to an atomic beam enables the manipulation of the transverse velocity distribution. We have developed a numerical model using a continued fraction solution for the light pressure forces1 to simulate the interaction of an atomic beam with a strong laser field. Using this model, the behaviour of the atoms with small transverse velocity (kv1 « Γ) in a strong standing laser field has been systematically investigated.2
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