Observation of Temporal Behavior of an Atomic Wave Packet Localized in an Optical Potential

M. Kozuma; K. Nakagawa; W. Jhe; M. Ohtsu

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.2428

Observation of Temporal Behavior of an Atomic Wave Packet Localized in an Optical Potential

M. Kozuma, K. Nakagawa, W. Jhe, and M. Ohtsu

Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 2428 – Published 1 April 1996

Abstract

We have investigated the dynamic temporal behavior of atomic motion in a periodic optical potential by detecting a recoil-induced resonance signal. In the slowly moving optical potential, damped oscillations are observed in the transient signal and the oscillation frequency is found to be independent of the moving speed of the potential. By using a Monte Carlo wave-function method, the signal can be attributed to the oscillatory motion of atomic wave packet localized in the potential, where the oscillation frequency corresponds to the energy separation between vibrational levels.

Received 8 November 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.76.2428

Authors & Affiliations

M. Kozuma¹, K. Nakagawa², W. Jhe³, and M. Ohtsu^1,4

¹Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259, Nagatsuta-cho, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226, Japan
²Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics, 1583, Iiyama-cho, Atugi 243-02, Japan
³Department of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
⁴Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology, KSP East 408, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki 213, Japan