Fractional resonances in the atom-opticalδ-kicked accelerator

2008/06/30 by M. Saunders, Mark N. K. Saunders, P. L. Halkyard +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #nlin.CD #physics.atom-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.79.023423

published as Phys. Rev. A 79, 023423 (2009) · 18 pages, 8 figures

arxiv created 2008/09/23 · openalex publication_date 2009/02/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We consider resonant dynamics in a dilute atomic gas falling under gravity through a periodically pulsed standing-wave laser field. Our numerical calculations are based on a Monte Carlo method for an incoherent mixture of noninteracting plane waves, and we show that quantum resonances are highly sensitive to the relative acceleration between the atomic gas and the pulsed optical standing wave. For particular values of the atomic acceleration, we observe fractional resonances. We investigate the effect of the initial atomic momentum width on the fractional resonances and quantify the sensitivity of fractional resonances to thermal effects.

Citations

• Quantum resonances and decoherence for -kicked atoms
• Gravity-Sensitive Quantum Dynamics in Cold Atoms
• Observation of Sub-Fourier Resonances in a Quantum-Chaotic System
• Classical Scaling Theory of Quantum Resonances
• Quantum-mechanical cumulant dynamics near stable periodic orbits in phase space: Application to the classical-like dynamics of quantum accelerator modes
• Microscopic quantum dynamics approach to the dilute condensed Bose gas
• Manifestation of quantum resonances and antiresonances in a finite-temperature dilute atomic gas