München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 6: Gruppenberichte Fallen und Kühlung

Q 6.3: Group Report

Monday, March 22, 2004, 15:00–15:30, HS 224

Optical Bistability and Collective Behavior of Atoms in a High Finesse Ring Cavity — •Thilo Elsässer, Boris Nagorny, Julian Klinner, Malik Lindholdt, and Andreas Hemmerich — Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg

We report on collective non-linear dynamics in an optical lattice formed inside a high finesse ring cavity in a so far unexplored regime, where the light shift per photon times the number of trapped atoms exceeds the cavity resonance linewidth. In this regime the otherwise tiny retro-action of the moving atoms upon the light field becomes a significant feature of the system. This yields an inherently collective nature of the atomic motion and a corresponding non-linear behavior of the optical intra-cavity field. We observe dispersive optical bistability and self–induced breathing oscillations resulting from the retro–action of the atoms upon the optical potential wells. We can well understand most of our observations within a simplified model assuming adiabaticity of the atomic motion. Non-adiabatic aspects of the atomic motion are reproduced by solving the complete system of coupled non–linear equations of motion.