QUANTUM-FIELD THEORY OF ATOMS INTERACTING WITH PHOTONS .2. SCATTERING OF SHORT LASER-PULSES FROM TRAPPED BOSONIC ATOMS

We discuss a method for probing a system of cold bosonic atoms in a trap using intense short laser pulses. Above the critical temperature for Bose-Einstein condensation, such a system scatters very weakly. Coherent scattering occurs primarily in the forward direction within a solid angle determined by phase matching conditions for the thermal atomic distribution. Below the critical temperature, the number of scattered photons increases dramatically and the scattered light is emitted into a solid angle determined by the size of the condensate. Quantum statistics of the atoms explicitly effect the spectrum as well as the squeezing properties of the scattered light. The theory accounts for the atom-atom interactions. © 1995 The American Physical Society.