Dynamics and Coherence of Cold Atoms in Atom Optics Billiards

Nir Davidson, Ariel Kaplan, Mikkel F. Andersen

Dong Sheng, Luis A. Orozco

Mikkel F. Andersen

Wesley C. Campbell, Hanssen, J. L., Milner, V. +1 more

Ariel Kaplan, Mikkel F. Andersen, Friedman, Nir +1 more

We present a new experimental system (the ``atom-optics billiard'') and demonstrate chaotic and regular dynamics of cold, optically trapped atoms. We show that the softness of the walls and additional optical potentials can be used to manipulate the structure of phase space.

Nir Davidson

Dark optical traps use repulsive light forces to confine atoms mostly in the dark where their interaction with the trapping light is largely reduced, to enable long coherence times of the trapped atoms combined with tight confinement. We report on single-beam dark optical traps for ultra-cold atoms. These traps were used to demonstrate new spectroscopic and dynamical effects of the trapped atoms, including the observation of regular and chaotic motion in so called optical "billiards."