Berlin 2014 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 10: Atomic systems in external fields
A 10.6: Talk
Monday, March 17, 2014, 15:30–15:45, BEBEL E44/46
Beams made of twisted atoms: A theoretical analysis — •Armen Hayrapetyan1, Oliver Matula1,2, Andrey Surzhykov3, and Stephan Fritzsche3,4 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — 2GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany — 3Helmholtz-Institut Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany — 4Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany
We have analyzed Bessel beams of two-level atoms that are driven by a linearly polarized laser light. Based on the Schrödinger equation for two-level systems, we first determine the states of two-level atoms in a plane-wave field by taking into account propagation directions both of the atom and the field. For such laser-driven two-level atoms, we construct Bessel beams by going beyond the typical paraxial approximation. In particular, we show that the probability density of these atomic beams exhibits a non-trivial, Bessel-squared-type behavior. The profile of such twisted atoms is affected by atom and laser parameters, such as the nuclear charge, atom velocity, laser frequency, and propagation geometry of the atom and laser beams. Moreover, we spatially and temporally characterize the beam of hydrogen and selected (neutral) alkali-metal atoms that carry non-zero orbital angular momentum (OAM). The proposed spatiotemporal Bessel states (i) are able to describe twisted states of any two-level system which is driven by the radiation field and (ii) have potential applications in atomic and nuclear processes as well as in quantum communication.