Possibility of combined self-focusing of atomic and light beams

G. A. Askar’yan

E. P. Orlov

It is shown that self-focusing of light beams may occur as a result of cooling of a mixture of reacting gases in the case of resonant interaction of light with atoms (or molecules) participating in chemical reactions. Estimates of the duration and degree of cooling are obtained.

Juha Javanainen

Weiping Zhang, Barry C. Sanders, Weihan Tan

Light-induced dipole-dipole interactions in a coherent atomic field result in an effective nonlinear interaction between atoms. This nonlinearity can induce self-focusing and self-trapping of a coherent atomic beam undergoing propagation through a travelling-wave laser beam; we show how such a scheme could be realized and evaluate the critical density required for atomic self-focusing and self- trapping. An analogy to optical self-focusing and self- trapping is discussed.

Evgenii B. Aleksandrov, N. N. Yakobson

Weiping Zhang, Barry C. Sanders, Weihan Tan

Light-induced dipole-dipole interaction in a coherent atomic-field results in an effective nonlinearity for atoms. This nonlinearity can induce self-trapping and self-focusing of a coherent atomic beam undergoing propagation through a traveling-wave laser beam; we show how such a scheme could be realized and evaluate the critical density required for atomic self-trapping and self-focusing. An analogy to optical self-trapping and self-focusing is discussed.