Quantum transport of ultracold atoms in an accelerating optical potential

被引：40

作者：

Madison, KW ^{[1
]}

Bharucha, CF ^{[1
]}

Morrow, PR ^{[1
]}

Wilkinson, SR ^{[1
]}

Niu, Q ^{[1
]}

Sundaram, B ^{[1
]}

Raizen, MG ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Texas, Dept Phys, Austin, TX 78712 USA

来源：

APPLIED PHYSICS B-LASERS AND OPTICS | 1997年 / 65卷 / 06期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1007/s003400050335

中图分类号：

O43 [光学];

学科分类号：

070207 ; 0803 ;

摘要：

We review our recent experiments on the motion of ultracold sodium atoms in an accelerating one-dimensional standing wave of light. Atoms are trapped in a far-detuned standing wave that is accelerated for a controlled duration. A small oscillatory component is added to the acceleration, and the fraction of trapped atoms is measured as a function of the oscillation frequency. Resonances are observed where the number of trapped atoms drops dramatically. The separation between resonances is found to be proportional to the acceleration, and they are identified as a Wannier-Stark ladder. At higher values of the acceleration, we observe an exponential decay in the number of atoms that remain trapped as a function of the interaction time. This loss is due to quantum tunneling, and we compare the decay rates with Landau-Zener theory. We also observe oscillations in the tunneling rate as a function of the acceleration; these are due to quantum interference effects.

引用

页码：693 / 700

页数：8

共 30 条

[21] Atomic Landau-Zener tunneling and Wannier-Stark ladders in optical potentials [J].