dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaOptical Bistability and Collective Behavior of Atoms trapped in a High-Q Ring Cavity
| Authors | Th. Elsaesser, B. Nagorny, A. Hemmerich |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0309168 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0309168 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevA.69.033403 |
Abstract
We study the collective motion of atoms confined in an optical lattice operating inside a high finesse ring cavity. A simplified theoretical model for the dynamics of the system is developed upon the assumption of adiabaticity of the atomic motion. We show that in a regime where the light shift per photon times the number of atoms exceeds the line width of the cavity resonance, the otherwise tiny retro-action of the atoms upon the light field becomes a significant feature of the system, giving rise to dispersive optical bistability of the intra-cavity field. A solution of the complete set of classical equations of motion confirms these finding, however additional non-adiabatic phenomena are predicted, as for example self-induced radial breathing oscillations. We compare these results with experiments involving laser-cooled 85Rb atoms trapped in an optical lattice inside a ring cavity with a finesse of 180000. Temperature measurements conducted for moderate values of the atom-cavity interaction demonstrate that intensity-noise induced heating is kept at a very low level, a prerequisite for our further experiments. When we operate at large values of the atom--cavity interaction we observe bistability and breathing oscillations in excellent agreement with our theoretical predictions.
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"abstract": "We study the collective motion of atoms confined in an optical lattice\noperating inside a high finesse ring cavity. A simplified theoretical model for\nthe dynamics of the system is developed upon the assumption of adiabaticity of\nthe atomic motion. We show that in a regime where the light shift per photon\ntimes the number of atoms exceeds the line width of the cavity resonance, the\notherwise tiny retro-action of the atoms upon the light field becomes a\nsignificant feature of the system, giving rise to dispersive optical\nbistability of the intra-cavity field. A solution of the complete set of\nclassical equations of motion confirms these finding, however additional\nnon-adiabatic phenomena are predicted, as for example self-induced radial\nbreathing oscillations. We compare these results with experiments involving\nlaser-cooled 85Rb atoms trapped in an optical lattice inside a ring cavity with\na finesse of 180000. Temperature measurements conducted for moderate values of\nthe atom-cavity interaction demonstrate that intensity-noise induced heating is\nkept at a very low level, a prerequisite for our further experiments. When we\noperate at large values of the atom--cavity interaction we observe bistability\nand breathing oscillations in excellent agreement with our theoretical\npredictions.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0309168",
"authors": [
"Th. Elsaesser",
"B. Nagorny",
"A. Hemmerich"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevA.69.033403",
"title": "Optical Bistability and Collective Behavior of Atoms trapped in a High-Q Ring Cavity",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0309168"
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