Mainz 1997 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik
Q 20: Poster Ib: Atomoptik
Q 20.10: Poster
Tuesday, March 4, 1997, 16:00–18:00, Phil. Fak.
Atomic diffraction assisted by a stimulated Sisyphus mecanism — •Carsten Henkel1, Klaus Mølmer2, Robin Kaiser1, and Chris I. Westbrook1 — 1Institut d’Optique, B. P. 147, F–91403 Orsay CEDEX — 2Institute for Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, DK–8000 Århus C
We discuss a simple mecanism for the scattering of multilevel atoms from an
atomic mirror formed by an evanescent laser wave. Provided the laser field
contains a weak component with a polarization different from the field
establishing the mirror, the atoms may change internal state in the vicinity
of the classical turning point in the mirror. The resulting
exchange between internal and kinetic energy of the atomic centre-of-mass
motion leads to efficient large-angle scattering [1,2].
This mecanism is reminiscent
of the so-called Sisyphus effect of laser cooling, and it may apply
to atomic diffraction from a partially stationary evanescent wave with a
polarization gradient and to the diffuse reflection at an evanescent wave
above a rough dielectric surface [3]. For these two cases,
we present and discuss perturbative calculations using the distorted
wave Born approximation.
[1] R. Deutschmann et al., Phys. Rev. A48 (1993) R4023.
[2] D. Gordon and C. M. Savage, Opt. Comm. 130 (1996) 34.
[3] C. Henkel et al., Diffuse atomic reflection at a rough mirror, to be published in Phys. Rev. A (1997).