Difference between a Photon's Momentum and an Atom's Recoil

Journal Article · Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.97.073002· OSTI ID:20860691

Gibble, Kurt ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (United States)

When an atom absorbs a photon from a laser beam that is not an infinite plane wave, the atom's recoil is less than ({Dirac_h}/2{pi})k in the propagation direction. We show that the recoils in the transverse directions produce a lensing of the atomic wave functions, which leads to a frequency shift that is not discrete but varies linearly with the field amplitude and strongly depends on the atomic state detection. The same lensing effect is also important for microwave atomic clocks. The frequency shifts are of the order of the naive recoil shift for the transverse wave vector of the photons.

• OSTI ID: 20860691
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 7; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.073002; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
ATOMIC CLOCKS
ATOMS
LASERS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
PHOTONS
RECOILS
VECTORS
WAVE FUNCTIONS