Rayleigh Scattering and Atomic Dynamics in Dissipative Optical Lattices

Abstract

We investigate Rayleigh scattering in dissipative optical lattices. In particular, following recent proposals (S. Guibal {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 78}, 4709 (1997); C. Jurczak {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 77}, 1727 (1996)), we study whether the Rayleigh resonance originates from the diffraction on a density grating, and is therefore a probe of transport of atoms in optical lattices. It turns out that this is not the case: the Rayleigh line is instead a measure of the cooling rate, while spatial diffusion contributes to the scattering spectrum with a much broader resonance.

accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters (2003)

References in corpus (2)

• Brillouin propagation modes in optical lattices: interpretation in terms of nonconventional stochastic resonance
• Temperature and spatial diffusion of atoms cooled in a 3D lin$\perp$lin bright optical lattice

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Narrow structure in the coherent population trapping resonances in rubidium and Rayleigh scattering
• Time dependence of laser cooling in optical lattices
• Synchronization of Hamiltonian motion and dissipative effects in optical lattices: Evidence for a stochastic resonance
• Damping rates of the atomic velocity in Sisyphus cooling
• Observation of stochastic resonance in directed propagation of cold atoms