Strong Local-Field Effect on the Dynamics of a Dilute Atomic Gas Irradiated by Two Counterpropagating Optical Fields: Beyond Standard Optical Lattices
- State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy, Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062 (China)
- MAE Department, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544 (United States)
We study a recent experiment [K. Li et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 250401 (2008)] on diffracting a Bose-Einstein condensate by two counterpropagating optical fields. Including the local-field effect, we explain the asymmetric momentum distribution and self-imaging of the Bose-Einstein condensate self-consistently. Moreover, we find that the two counterpropagating optical fields could not produce a perfect optical lattice, which is actually deformed by the local-field effect. Our work implies that the local-field effect could be essential for getting a better quantitative analysis of other optical lattice experiments. In particular, the intensity imbalance of the two optical fields could act as a new means to tailor both cold atom dynamics and light propagation.
- OSTI ID:
- 21538359
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 21; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.210403; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Localization of collisionally inhomogeneous condensates in a bichromatic optical lattice
Imbalanced Fermi superfluid in a one-dimensional optical potential