Resonant light pressure forces in a strong standing laser wave

The light pressure forces acting on a two-level atom in a strong standing laser wave are calculated. It is shown that at strong saturation of a resonant atomic transition the velocity dependence of these forces include sharp variations due to multiphoton resonances. At small atomic velocities these multiphoton resonances may even change the sign of the forces. The results obtained are important for many applications of resonant light pressure, e.g. in cooling and trapping of atoms in standing laser waves.     

Light diffraction by a strong standing electromagnetic wave

The nonlinear quantum interaction of a linearly polarized x-ray probe beam with a focused intense standing laser wave is studied theoretically. Because of the tight focusing of the standing laser pulse, diffraction effects arise for the probe beam as opposed to the corresponding plane wave scenario. A quantitative estimate for realistic experimental conditions of the ellipticity and the rotation of the main polarization plane acquired by the x-ray probe after the interaction shows that the implementation of such vacuum effects is feasible with future X-ray Free Electron Laser light.     

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.     

Backward diffraction of electrons by a standing light wave

By means of a simple approximation we evaluate the Kapitza-Dirac diffraction probabilities for scattering of electrons in backward direction by a standing wave of intense coherent light.     

Stable localization of atoms in a standing light wave field

We demonstrate theoretically that atoms can be localized (trapped) for a long time in the minima of a periodic potential produced by a strong standing light wave when they are irradiated additionally by a weak traveling or standing light wave which cools atoms in the potential wells.     

Time-resolved detection of atoms diffracted from a standing light wave

We present a time-resolved experimental observation of the diffraction of metastable helium atoms from a nearly resonant standing light wave. The application of a time-resolved detection technique and a pulsed source allows to resolve high diffraction orders, which are populated in the atom-light interaction. Furthermore, the rms momentum transfer from the light field on the atom as a function of the interaction time is investigated. Future applications of this technique may be the detailed investigation of the motion of atoms in standing light waves and the detection of correlations between spontaneously emitted photons and atoms.Dedicated to H. Walter on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Proliferation of atomic wave packets at the nodes of a standing light wave

A quantum analysis is presented of the motion and internal state of a two-level atom in a strong standing-wave light field. Coherent evolution of the atomic wave-packet, atomic dipole moment, and population inversion strongly depends on the ratio between the detuning from atom-field resonance and a characteristic atomic frequency. In the basis of dressed states, atomic motion is represented as wave-packet motion in two effective optical potentials. At exact resonance, coherent population trapping is observed when an atom with zero momentum is centered at a standing-wave node. When the detuning is comparable to the characteristic atomic frequency, the atom crossing a node may or may not undergo a transition between the potentials with probabilities that are similar in order of magnitude. In this detuning range, atomic wave packets proliferate at the nodes of the standing wave. This phenomenon is interpreted as a quantum manifestation of chaotic transport of classical atoms observed in earlier studies. For a certain detuning range, there exists an interval of initial momentum values such that the atom simultaneously oscillates in an optical potential well and moves as a ballistic particle. This behavior of a wave packet is a quantum analog of a classical random walk of an atom, when it enters and leaves optical potential wells in a seemingly irregular manner and freely moves both ways in a periodic standing light wave. In a far-detuned field, the transition probability between the potentials is low, and adiabatic wave-packet evolution corresponding to regular classical motion of an atom is observed.     

激光驻波中运动电子的谐波自发辐射

采用单电子模型分析了电子在线极化激光驻波中的动力学及谐波自发辐射谱,数值计算了电子在驻波中的运动情况及辐射谱。结果表明:电子在波节和波腹处入射后,其辐射谱出现不同的特征;电子在波节处垂直磁场入射后,在洛伦兹力作用下快速振动并向前运动,其向后辐射的光谱发生红移,向前辐射的光谱发生蓝移,谱线出现展宽;当激光强度或者电子初始能量增大时,这些效应更加突出,以至于产生更高阶谐波,形成连续谱;而电子在波腹处以平行电场的方向入射后,仅在电场作用下作直线运动,其自发辐射谱线没有发生移动和展宽。     

Deflection profiles of a monoenergetic atomic beam crossing a standing light wave

We calculate the shape of the deflection profile of a monoenergetic atomic beam crossing a laser standing wave, in a situation where many spontaneous emission processes occur during the interaction time. We predict that double peaked structures appear when the laser is detuned from resonance.     

Deflection of resonant multilevel particles in a standing wave light field

We study the deflection of an atomic system with a resonant multilevel energy structure in classical and quantized wave light fields. We obtain that the shape of the momentum distribution is very sensitive to the energy level structure, whereas its moments are not. Comparison with a two-level case is made.     

Time evolution of atomic inversion in a standing wave light field

The interaction between an atomic beam of two-level atoms and a standing wave light field has been studied by the exact solution of a time-dependent quantum system developed recently. When the initial atomic state is choosen to be ground, we find that with the limit of zero detuning the atoms will oscillate between the upper and the lower levels with a decaying amplitude. The most interesting result obtained in this paper is when the initial atomic state is a particular superposition of the two levels, now the system does not oscillate at any time.     

The fluorescence of a molecular gas excited a strong monochromatic standing wave radiation field

Among the different methods of nonlinear spectrosccpy the method of analysing the fluorescence light is useful in investigating weak absorbing molecular transitions. In this paper the fluorescence of a molecular gas in the resonator of a high-power single mode laser is investigated. By tuning the standing wave field frequency to centre of the absorption line one observes a narrow local minimum for the fluorescence. This minimum is determined by the homogeneously broadened line of the molecular transition and gives information of the different molecular relaxation processes. The influence of vibrational-rotational relaxations, velocity changing collisions and spatial inhomogeneous distribution of the population caused by the standing wave field on the width and contrast of the minimum is theoretically investigated. It will be shown, that vibrational-rotational and velocity changing collisions increase the intensity of the fluorescence. The spatial inhomogeneous distribution of population caused by the excitation decreases the contrast.Results have been partially presented in reference [12].     

New friction force due to spontaneous light pressure

We have discovered a new friction force, acting on an atom in the field of two oppositely propagating elliptically polarized waves of low intensity. In contrast to the well-known friction forces, the new force does not vanish at zero detuning of the field from resonance, and the direction of the kinetic process (heating or cooling) is determined by the relative orientation and the ellipticity of the polarization vectors of the oppositely propagating waves. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 70, No. 7, 439–444 (10 October 1999)     

Spectral line narrowing in a gas by atoms trapped in a standing light wave

This paper presents results of a theoretical analysis of a new method for eliminating the Doppler broadening of spectral lines and the broadening by the transit time of atoms through a light beam. The atomic motion in a one-dimensional standing wave is studied and the conditions for translational-to-vibrational motion transformation are found. The variation in the Doppler contour by the trapping effect is investigated. It is illustrated, in particular, that the width of the narrow peak at the line centre depends mainly on the finite transit time of the atoms through the light beam. Next it is shown that, by accumulating slow atoms in a three-dimensional standing wave, it is possible, in principle, to observe narrow peaks with their widths determined only by the natural line width. The possibility of experimentally detecting of the phenomenon is discussed.     

Chaotic motion of atom in the coherent field of a standing light wave

A new effect of chaotic motion of the center of mass of a cold atom in the coherent field of a standing light wave in a high-finesse Fabry-Pérot cavity is theoretically predicted and numerically implemented in the absence of any random fluctuations due to spontaneous emission. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the Hamiltonian chaos arises near resonance in the range of parameters characteristic of the strong coupling regime that was implemented in recent experiments. The effect is of interest in studying the quantum-classical correspondence and quantum chaos in atomic optics.     

Dynamics of spontaneous radiation of atoms scattered by a resonance standing light wave

The scattering of atoms by a resonance standing light wave is considered under conditions when the lower of two resonance levels is metastable, while the upper level rapidly decays due to mainly spontaneous radiative transitions to the nonresonance levels of an atom. The diffraction scattering regime is studied, when the Rabi frequency is sufficiently high and many diffraction maxima are formed due to scattering. The dynamics of spontaneous radiation of an atom is investigated. It is shown that scattering slows down substantially the radiative decay of the atom. The regions and characteristics of the power and exponential decay are determined. The adiabatic and nonadiabatic scattering regimes are studied. It is shown that the wave packets of atoms in the metastable and resonance excited states narrow down during scattering. A limiting (minimal) size of the wave packets is found, which is achieved upon nonadiabatic scattering in the case of a sufficiently long interaction time.     

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.     

Intensities of fine-structure components due to light scattering at a transverse elastic wave

The splitting and intensity are estimated for the doublet produced by scattering of a light wave at hypersonic transverse shear vibrations in a liquid of high shear viscosity. It is shown that observation of the fine structure of the Rayleigh line at fairly high temperatures is prevented by the very small magnitude of the splitting and the strong damping of the transverse vibrations. The intensity of these components is very small at low temperatures, so they can be observed only with a source having very narrow and intense lines.