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Acta Physica Sinica

Self-organization of light driven atoms induced by recoil effect in a harmonic trap

Zhang Lin, Kong Hong-yan, Guojian Yang, (1)宝鸡文理学院非线性研究所，宝鸡 721007; (2)北京师范大学物理系，北京 100875

Published Jan 1, 2006• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, the collective dynamic behaviors of N two-level atoms pumped by two-mode light field in a harmonic trap are investigated. When atoms are driven by the intense pump field, the atomic oscillating modes in the trap are continually excited by the photon recoil effect, which discretely changes the atomic detuning from the pumping field. Under proper resonant conditions the weak probe field will be greatly amplified and the atomic spatial structures will be spontaneously formed in the phase space.

DOI
10.7498/aps.55.5122

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Physical Review Letters•Nov 11, 2003•353 citations
In this paper, the collective dynamic behaviors of N two-level atoms pumped by two-mode light field in a harmonic trap are investigated. When atoms are driven by the intense pump field, the atomic oscillating modes in the trap are continually excited by the photon recoil effect, which discretely changes the atomic detuning from the pumping field. Under proper resonant conditions the weak probe field will be greatly amplified and the atomic spatial structures will be spontaneously formed in the phase space.
We theoretically investigate the correlated dynamics of N coherently driven atoms coupled to a standing-wave cavity mode. For red detuning between the driving field and the cavity as well as the atomic resonance frequencies, we predict a light force induced self-organization of the atoms into one of two possible regular patterns, which maximize the cooperative scattering of light into the cavity field. Kinetic energy is extracted from the atoms by superradiant light scattering to reach a final kinetic energy related to the cavity linewidth. The self-organization starts only above a threshold of the pump strength and atom number. We find a quadratic dependence of the cavity mode intensity on the atom number, which demonstrates the cooperative effect.
Summary form only given. Spontaneous optical pattern formation occurs in a variety of nonlinear systems [1], including hot atomic vapors [2]. On the other hand, the spatial self-organization of atomic ensembles due to opto-mechanical coupling has received a lot of interest in recent years [3].We report on the observation of transverse self-organization of a cold atomic cloud (issued from a magnetooptical trap) under the action of a single pump laser beam. Two symmetries (translation and rotation) in the plane orthogonal to the beam propagation direction are spontaneously broken. We use a simple optical feedback scheme [4], where the transmitted pump beam is retro-reflected to the atoms by a high-reflectivity mirror located at a distance d behind the cloud. This feedback loop transforms phase fluctuations of the transmitted wave into intensity fluctuations, which then react on the atomic medium. If the feedback is positive, a transverse instability can develop leading to the spontaneous apparition of patterns in the transmitted pump intensity profile, as shown in the figure below (left).Using a weak probe beam sent a few tens of μs after the e,tinction of the pump, we demonstrate that the instability also results in a transverse spatial ordering of the atomic medium as shown in the right image. The cold atoms thus e,perience strong spatial bunching due to the dipole force associated to the inhomogeneous intensity distribution. We identified two different instability regimes. For short pump durations (- 1 μs), high pump intensity and cloud optical density, the instability relies on the Kerr effect (electronic nonlinearity). For longer pump durations (- 100 μs), the instability is driven by the opto-mechanical effect, resulting in lower intensity and optical density thresholds than for the electronic nonlinearity. These observations are well reproduced by a theoretical model including the coupled dynamics of the light field and the atomic e,ternal degrees of freedom.
The recoil effects of spontaneous photon emissions during optical pumping of a trapped three-level atom are exactly calculated. Without resort to the Lamb-Dicke approximation, and considering arbitrary detuning and saturation of the pump laser, the density of recoil shifts in phase space is derived. It is shown that this density is not of Gaussian shape, and that it becomes isotropic in phase space only for a branching ratio corresponding to fluorescence scattering but unfavorable for optical pumping. The dependence of its anisotropy on the laser saturation is discussed in the resonant case, and the mapping of moments of the atom's center-of-mass motion due to the pumping is presented. Moreover, it is shown how optimum parameters for protecting the center-of-mass quantum state from pump-induced disturbance depend on the specific property to be protected.
We demonstrate that emission-induced self-organization of two-level atoms can effect strong damping of the sample's center-of-mass motion. When illuminated by far-detuned light, cold cesium atoms assemble into a density grating that efficiently diffracts the incident light into an optical resonator. We observe random phase jumps of pi in the emitted light, confirming spontaneous symmetry breaking in the atomic self-organization. The Bragg diffraction results in a collective friction force with center-of-mass deceleration up to 1000 m/s(2) that is effective even for an open atomic transition.