München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 32: Poster Laserspektroskopie und Laser in der Umweltmesstechnik

Q 32.1: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 14:00–16:00, Schellingstr. 3

Observation of Large Atomic-Recoil Induced Asymmetries in Cold Atom Spectroscopy — •Guido Wilpers, Christopher W. Oates, and Leo Hollberg — National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Co. 80305, USA

The atomic recoil effect leads to large (25 %) asymmetries in simple spectroscopic investigations of Ca atoms that have been laser-cooled to 10 µK. Starting with spectra from the more familiar Doppler-broadened domain, we show how the fundamental asymmetry between absorption and stimulated emission of light manifests itself when shorter spectroscopic pulses lead to the Fourier transform regime. These effects occur on frequency scales much larger than the size of the recoil shift itself, and have not been observed before in saturation spectroscopy. These results are relevant to state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks based on freely expanding neutral atoms.