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arXiv:quant-ph/0305164 · Physical Review Letters

Collective Atomic Motion in an Optical Lattice Formed Inside a High Finesse Cavity

Boris Nagorny, Th. Elsässer, Andreas Hemmerich

Published Oct 10, 2003• 110 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report on collective nonlinear dynamics in an optical lattice formed inside a high finesse ring cavity in a so far unexplored regime, where the light shift per photon times the number of trapped atoms exceeds the cavity resonance linewidth. We observe bistability and self-induced squeezing oscillations resulting from the retroaction of the atoms upon the optical potential wells. We can well understand most of our observations within a simplified model assuming adiabaticity of the atomic motion. Nonadiabatic aspects of the atomic motion are reproduced by solving the complete system of coupled nonlinear equations of motion.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.91.153003

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Email Share Share with Facebook Tweet This Post on reddit Share with LinkedIn Add to CiteULike Add to Mendeley Add to BibSonomy Get Citation Copy Citation Text T. Elsässer, B. Nagorny, and A. Hemmerich, "Collective atomic motion in an optical lattice formed inside a high finesse ring cavity," in Frontiers in Optics, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optica Publishing Group, 2003), paper PDP4. Export Citation BibTex Endnote (RIS) HTML Plain Text Citation alert Save article

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We report on collective nonlinear dynamics in an optical lattice formed inside a high finesse ring cavity in a so far unexplored regime, where the light shift per photon times the number of trapped atoms exceeds the cavity resonance linewidth. We observe bistability and self-induced squeezing oscillations resulting from the retroaction of the atoms upon the optical potential wells. We can well understand most of our observations within a simplified model assuming adiabaticity of the atomic motion. Nonadiabatic aspects of the atomic motion are reproduced by solving the complete system of coupled nonlinear equations of motion.
We study the collective motion of atoms confined in an optical lattice operating inside a high-finesse ring cavity. A simplified theoretical model for the dynamics of the system is developed upon the assumption of adiabaticity of the atomic motion. We show that in a regime where the light shift per photon times the number of atoms exceeds the linewidth of the cavity resonance, the otherwise tiny retroaction of the atoms upon the light field becomes a significant feature of the system. As a result dispersive optical bistability can arise and the lattice positions is determined by the strength of the atom-cavity coupling rather than by the phases of the incoupled light beams. Solving the complete set of classical equations of motion confirms these findings, however, additional nonadiabatic phenomena are predicted, such as, for example, self-induced radial breathing oscillations. We compare these results with experiments involving laser-cooled 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms trapped in an optical lattice inside a ring cavity with a finesse of $1.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$. Our observations are in excellent agreement with our theoretical predictions.
A novel regime of atom-cavity physics is explored, arising when large atom samples dispersively interact with high-finesse optical cavities. A stable far-detuned optical lattice of several million rubidium atoms is formed inside an optical ring resonator by coupling equal amounts of laser light to each propagation direction of a longitudinal cavity mode. An adjacent longitudinal mode, detuned by about 3 GHz, is used to perform probe transmission spectroscopy of the system. The atom-cavity coupling for the lattice beams and the probe is dispersive and dissipation results only from the finite photon-storage time. The observation of two well-resolved normal modes demonstrates the regime of strong cooperative coupling. The details of the normal mode spectrum reveal mechanical effects associated with the retroaction of the probe upon the optical lattice.
A Bose–Einstein condensate is dispersively coupled to a single mode of an ultra-high finesse optical cavity. The system is governed by strong interactions between the atomic motion and the light field even at the level of single quanta. While coherently pumping the cavity mode the condensate is subject to the cavity optical lattice potential whose depth depends nonlinearly on the atomic density distribution. We observe optical bistability already below the single photon level and strong back-action dynamics which tunes the coupled system periodically out of resonance.
We report on Kerr nonlinearity and dispersive optical bistability of a Fabry-Perot optical resonator due to the displacement of ultracold atoms trapped within. In the driven resonator, such collective motion is induced by optical forces acting upon up to 10(5) 87Rb atoms prepared in the lowest band of a one-dimensional intracavity optical lattice. The longevity of atomic motional coherence allows for strongly nonlinear optics at extremely low cavity photon numbers, as demonstrated by the observation of both branches of optical bistability at photon numbers below unity.
This article complements previous work on the nondestructive observation of Bloch oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice formed inside a high-finesse optical cavity [H. Ke\ss{}ler et al., New J. Phys. 18, 102001 (2016)]. We present measurements showing that the observed Bloch frequency is independent of the atom number and hence the cooperative coupling strength, the intracavity lattice depth, and the detuning between the external pump light and the effective cavity resonance. We find that in agreement with theoretical predictions, despite the atom-cavity dynamics, the value of the Bloch frequency agrees with that expected in conventional optical lattices, where it solely depends on the sizes of the force and the lattice constant. We also show that Bloch oscillations are observed in a self-organized two-dimensional lattice, which is formed if, instead of axially pumping the cavity through one of its mirrors, the Bose-Einstein condensate is irradiated by an optical standing wave oriented perpendicularly with respect to the cavity axis. For this case, however, excessive decoherence prevents a meaningful quantitative assessment.