Cold Collisions between Atoms in Optical Lattices

Jyrki Piilo

T. Eichler, T. Mukai, A. Kasper +1 more

B. Segev, Dan Vager, Y. B. Band

Andrew J. Kerman

Jyrki Piilo, Kalle‐Antti Suominen

In the past, light-assisted cold collisions between laser cooled atoms have been widely studied in magneto-optical atom traps (MOTs). We describe here theoretical studies of dynamical interactions, specifically cold collisions, between atoms trapped in near-resonant, dissipative optical lattices. The developed quantum-mechanical model is based on Monte Carlo wave-function simulations and combines atomic cooling and collision dynamics in a single framework. It turns out, that the radiative heating mechanism affects the dynamics of atomic cloud in a red-detuned lattice in a way that is not directly expected from the MOT studies. The optical lattice and position dependent light-matter coupling introduces selectivity of collision partners. Atoms, which are most mobile and energetic, are strongly favored to participate in collisions, and are more often ejected from the lattice, than the slow ones in the laser parameter region selected for study. For blue-detuned lattices, we study how optical shielding emerges as a natural part of the lattice and look for ways to optimize the effect. The simulations are computationally very demanding and would obviously benefit from the simplification schemes. We present some steps to this direction by showing how it is possible to calculate collision rates in near-resonant lattices in a fairly simple way.

Jyrki Piilo, Kalle‐Antti Suominen, Kirstine Berg‐Sørensen

We have simulated binary collisions between atoms in optical lattices during Sisyphus cooling. Our Monte Carlo wavefunction simulations show that the collisions selectively accelerate mainly the hotter atoms in the thermal ensemble, and thus affect the steady state which one would normally expect to reach in Sisyphus cooling without collisions.