Cooling of atoms below the recoil energy under multizone Raman excitation

Cooling of atoms below the temperature determined by the recoil energy is proposed on the basis of the Raman excitation of three-level atoms by the field of standing waves with a relative spatial shift. The advantage of this cooling mechanism is a weak sensitivity to the shape and duration of light pulses used for the transfer of population under Raman excitation. It is shown that the effectiveness of such cooling increases sharply when multizone excitation is used and already several interaction zones are enough for deep transverse cooling of an atomic beam to a temperature significantly lower than the recoil energy.     

Photon recoil momentum in dispersive media

A systematic shift of the photon recoil momentum due to the index of refraction of a dilute gas of atoms has been observed. The recoil frequency was determined with a two-pulse light grating interferometer using near-resonant laser light. The results show that the recoil momentum of atoms caused by the absorption of a photon is n variant Planck's k, where n is the index of refraction of the gas and k is the vacuum wave vector of the photon. This systematic effect must be accounted for in high-precision atom interferometry with light gratings.     

Anomalous spatial concentration of atoms in the field of a standing light wave

The stationary momentum and coordinate distributions of two-level atoms in the field of a one-dimensional standing light wave have been studied. A qualitatively new effect—the predominant concentration of atoms outside of the minima of the optical potential—has been detected in the regime of moderate saturation of an atomic transition and red frequency detuning. This effect has been qualitatively interpreted. Calculations have been performed using the quantum kinetic equation for the atomic density matrix with the complete inclusion of recoil and localization effects in an arbitrary-intensity light field. In addition to theoretical significance, the results can be useful for atomic nanolithography and frequency standards based on optical gratings.     

Atomic scatterin G by a resonant standing light wave

The theory of atomic scattering by a resonant standing light wave is developed. It is shown that, if the natural width of atomic transition is larger than the recoil energy and the interaction time exeeds the spontaneous decay time, the atomic motion is described by the kinetic equation for atomic distribution function. The latter is a Fokker-Planck type equation and includes the light pressure force and momentum diffusion tensor. It is found that in a strong wave the maximum value of the force is limited, whereas the diffusion tensor increases proportional to wave intensity. It is concluded that for high intensities of a standing wave, it is the atomic momentum diffusion that is responsible for scattering.     

铁磁薄膜中非线性静磁表面波的传播

本文用微扰理论导出了横向磁化条件下铁磁薄膜中非线性静磁表面波满足的运动方程和它的解析解。获得非线性色散关系,揭示了传播功率致使静磁表面波频带压缩。研究了群色散和非线性频移随频率和薄膜厚度的变化规律。证明了横向磁化时非线性MSSW不能以静磁孤子的形式存在。 关键词：     

Influence of transit effects on optical resonances in time-separated fields

Contributions to the shift of resonance in time-separated fields from wavefront curvature of the field pulses and gravity are determined. The influence of inhomogeneity of atomic distribution in a magnetooptical trap is taken into account. The scheme for observation of the resonances that eliminates shift due to the recoil effect is considered.     

Young-type interference in collisions between hydrogen molecular ions and helium

The dissociative electron transfer from He into 10 keV H2+ was measured in a kinematically complete experiment by using the cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy imaging technique in combination with a highly resolving molecular fragment imaging technique. The electron transfer into the dissociative b(3)Sigma+_(u) state of H2 could be selected by kinematic conditions. We find a striking double slit interference pattern in the transverse momentum transfer which we can modify by selecting different internuclear distances. Compared to an optical double slit, interference minima and maxima are interchanged. The latter is the result of a phase shift in the electronic part of the wave function.     

Evolution of an intense elliptically polarized electromagnetic wave in underdense plasmas

An elliptically polarized electromagnetic wave in an underdense plasma acquires a longitudinal component of the electric field which oscillates as even harmonics of the fundamental frequency. The phase shift between transverse field components and the wave amplitudes exhibit nonlinear oscillations.     

Ultra-Slow Atomic Beam Generation by Velocity Selective Resonance

We describe a method to generate an ultra-slow atomic beam by velocity selective resonance （VSR）. A VSR experiment on a metastable helium beam in a magnetic field is presented and the results show that the transverse velocity of the deflected beam can be cooled and precisely controlled to less than the recoil velocity, depending on the magnitude of the magnetic field. We extend this idea to a cold atomic cloud to produce an ultra-slow 87Rb beam that can be used as a source of an atomic fountain clock or a space clock.     

Transverse effects in collective atomic recoil lasing

We investigate transverse effects in collective atomic recoil lasing (CARL), where a cold atomic sample is lightened by a far detuned laser beam resonant with the internal atomic transition. The gradient force of the scattered radiation field produces a collective self-focusing on the atoms, which could be observed in a Bose-Einstein condensate stored in a bidirectional optical ring cavity or in the superradiant CARL-BEC regime.     

Theory of recoil effects of elastically scattered electrons and of photoelectrons

Quasi-elastic scatterings of high-energy electrons are studied with quantum scattering theory including recoil effects by use of correlation functions. Two different types of recoil processes are investigated; one is free atom recoil and the other is phonon excited recoil processes within harmonic vibration approximation where Mermin’s theorem works. The recoil effects of photoelectrons excited by high-energy X-rays are also studied, where the atomic displacement after the core-hole production also plays some important roles. For practical calculations the Debye approximation is used for phonon spectra, which gives rise to the simple free atom recoil energy shift. The broadenings of the spectra depend on the temperature in contrast to the energy shift, and is quite different from the free atom approximation in particular at low temperature. Numerical calculations are carried out for Be, C (graphite), Si and Ge powders. The energy shifts for solids composed of light elements are comparable with typical chemical shifts.     

Transverse correlation vanishing due to phase aberrations

The concept of transverse correlation vanishing, between the fraction of power contained in the centre and wings of a probe beam, recently introduced [Opt. Commun. 282 (2009) 3854-3858] is important to be considered when measuring the effective focal length of any refractive index profile. When the latter is not parabolic it is shown that the transverse correlation could vanish, and this represents a potential source of error when measuring any lensing effect. We propose a low cost set-up (two photodiodes, a pinhole and a stop) able to reveal if the probe beam has monitored a pure or an aberrated lensing effect especially when it is time-dependent.     

Non-Classical Behavior of Atoms in an Interferometer

Using the time-dependent wave function we have studied the properties of the atomic transverse motion in an interferometer, and the cause of the non-classical behavior of atoms reported by Kurtsiefer, Pfau, and Mlynek [Nature 386, 150 (1997)]. The transverse wave function is derived from the solution of the two-dimensional Schrödinger's equation, written in the form of the Fresnel–Kirchhoff diffraction integral. It is assumed that the longitudinal motion is classical. Comparing data of the space distribution and of the transverse momentum distribution in interferometers with one and two open slits, it follows that the atomic motion is influenced by the atomic matter wave and violates the laws of classical mechanics. However, the negative values of Wigner's function should not be taken as evidence that the atoms in an interferometer violate the classical statistical law of the addition of positive probabilities. This inference follows from the comparison of properties of Wigner's function and of the de Broglian probability density in phase space.     

Eliminating the mean-field shift in two-component bose-einstein condensates

We demonstrate that the nonlinear mean-field shift in a multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensate may be eliminated by controlling the two-body interaction coefficients. This modification can be achieved by engineering the environment of the condensate. We consider the case of a two-component condensate in a quasi-one-dimensional atomic waveguide, achieving modification of the atom-atom interactions by varying the transverse wave functions of the components. Eliminating the density-dependent phase shift represents a promising potential application for multicomponent condensates in atom interferometry and precision measurements.     

Atomic self-trapping induced by single-atom lasing

We study atomic center of mass motion and field dynamics of a single-atom laser consisting of a single incoherently pumped free atom moving in an optical high-Q resonator. For sufficient pumping, the system starts lasing whenever the atom is close to a field antinode. If the field mode eigenfrequency is larger than the atomic transition frequency, the generated laser light attracts the atom to the field antinode and cools its motion. Using quantum Monte Carlo wave function simulations, we investigate this coupled atom-field dynamics including photon recoil and cavity decay. In the regime of strong coupling, the generated field shows strong nonclassical features such as photon antibunching, and the atom is spatially confined and cooled to sub-Doppler temperatures.     

Cavity phase-shift error evaluation in a magnesium atomic beam frequency standard

In high resolution atomic or molecular beam spectroscopy, where the Ramsey interrogation method is used, one of uncertainty sources in determining the resonance frequency accurately is the phase-shift of the electromagnetic radiation in the cavity. This phenomenon, which depends on losses and asymmetries, is analyzed in a general way for a transverse atomic beam dimension much larger than the transition wavelength, a case which occurs in Mg or Ca beam frequency standards and the effects of different misalignments in collimated or divergent beams are examined. Numerical evaluations have been performed in the special case of an experimental Mg beam frequency standard. Divergence plays an important role in determining the cavity phase shift frequency error which is reduced about 100 times with respect to the case of a collimated beam.     

Can a linearly polarized light beam polarize atomic spin?

Lax et al. [Phys. Rev. 11 (1975) 1365] discovered that a light beam in vacuum is not a transverse wave but does have a longitudinal field component. We investigate atomic and molecular electric dipole transitions induced by such a light beam, in particular, linearly polarized in a transverse plane. We derive the selection rules and the transition rates for various quantization axes using the paraxial approximation up to the first order of 1/kw, where k is the wave number and w is the transverse size of the light beam. The light beam is able to yield atomic spin polarization in the direction perpendicular to both the optical axis and the transverse electric field, and its magnitude is approximately 1/kw times that generated by a circularly polarized light wave with the similar intensity.     

Effect of vacuum fluctuations on the motion of an electron in the magnetic field of an accelerator

The Langevin form of the quasiclassical approximation for an electron in a magnetic field is used to find the most general expression in the first order in fa for the vacuum-fluctuation Lorentz force. It is shown that besides the mechanism of excitation of fluctuation oscillations due to the recoil momentum there also exists a transverse (relative to the photon wave vector) fluctuation force due to the incomplete compensation of the electric force and the transverse component of the magnetic Lorentz force.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 42–46, March, 1981.     

Quantum theory of resonance fluorescence with recoil effects

A quantum statistical theory of resonance fluorescence, which is valid to all orders in the interaction with the laser field and which takes the recoil into account by explicit quantization of the center of mass motion, is presented. The recoil shifts are calculated both in the limit of weak and strong fields. In the limit of strong fields and when the laser field is at resonance with the atomic frequency, the theory predicts essentially a symmetric spectrum, centered at the recoil shifted frequency.