Analysis of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction patterns beyond the Raman-Nath regime

📝 Abstract

We study Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate from a standing light wave for a square pulse with variable pulse length but constant pulse area. We find that for sufficiently weak pulses, the usual analytical short-pulse prediction for the Raman-Nath regime continues to hold for longer times, albeit with a reduction of the apparent modulation depth of the standing wave. We quantitatively relate this effect to the Fourier width of the pulse, and draw analogies to the Rabi dynamics of a coupled two-state system. Our findings, combined with numerical modeling for stronger pulses, are of practical interest for the calibration of optical lattices in ultracold atomic systems.

💡 Analysis

We study Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of a Bose-Einstein condensate from a standing light wave for a square pulse with variable pulse length but constant pulse area. We find that for sufficiently weak pulses, the usual analytical short-pulse prediction for the Raman-Nath regime continues to hold for longer times, albeit with a reduction of the apparent modulation depth of the standing wave. We quantitatively relate this effect to the Fourier width of the pulse, and draw analogies to the Rabi dynamics of a coupled two-state system. Our findings, combined with numerical modeling for stronger pulses, are of practical interest for the calibration of optical lattices in ultracold atomic systems.

📄 Content

Analysis of Kapitza-Dirac diffraction patterns beyond the Raman-Nath regime Bryce Gadway, Daniel Pertot, Ren´e Reimann, Martin G. Cohen, and Dominik Schneble Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800 bgadway@ic.sunysb.edu Abstract: We study Kapitza-Dirac diffraction of a Bose-Einstein con- densate from a standing light wave for a square pulse with variable pulse length but constant pulse area. We find that for sufficiently weak pulses, the usual analytical short-pulse prediction for the Raman-Nath regime contin- ues to hold for longer times, albeit with a reduction of the apparent modu- lation depth of the standing wave. We quantitatively relate this effect to the Fourier width of the pulse, and draw analogies to the Rabi dynamics of a coupled two-state system. Our findings, combined with numerical model- ing for stronger pulses, are of practical interest for the calibration of optical lattices in ultracold atomic systems. OCIS codes: 020.1335 Atom optics; 020.1475 Bose-Einstein condensates; 020.1670 Coherent optical effects; 050.1940 Diffraction References and links

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