Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 67, Number 6, September 2004
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 928 - 933 | |
Section | Atomic and molecular physics | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2004-10198-1 | |
Published online | 01 September 2004 |
Shifting the boundaries: Pulse-shape effects in the atom-optics kicked rotor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Received:
22
January
2004
Accepted:
23
July
2004
We present the results of experiments performed on cold caesium in a pulsed sinusoidal optical potential created by counter-propagating laser beams having a small frequency difference in the laboratory frame. Since the atoms, which have average velocity close to zero in the laboratory frame, have non-zero average velocity in the co-moving frame of the optical potential, we are able to centre the initial velocity distribution of the cloud at an arbitrary point in phase space. In particular, we demonstrate the use of this technique to place the initial velocity distribution in a region of phase space not accessible to previous experiments, namely beyond the momentum boundaries arising from the finite pulse duration of the potential. We further use the technique to explore the kicked-rotor dynamics starting from a region of phase space where there is a strong velocity dependence of the diffusion constant and quantum break time and demonstrate that this results in a marked asymmetry in the chaotic evolution of the atomic momentum distribution.
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 05.45.Mt – Quantum chaos; semiclassical methods
© EDP Sciences, 2004
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.