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Raman-induced Avoided Crossings in Adiabatic Optical Potentials: Observation of λ8 Spatial Frequency in the Distribution of Atoms

Published

Author(s)

R Gupta, Jabez J. McClelland, Robert Celotta, P Marte

Abstract

Chromium atoms traverse an optical potential and the resulting spatial distribution is measured by a new method. Atoms are collected on a substrate and an atomic force microscope is used to determine the flux as a function of position. An unexpectedly high spatial frequency (λ/8) is found in the the atomic distribution. This is attributed to avoided crossings arising from Raman coherences induced between magnetic sublevels. These results show that level crossings and nonadiabatic transitions can play an important role in the manipulation of atomic trajectories by nearresonant light fields.
Citation
Physical Review Letters
Volume
76
Issue
25

Citation

Gupta, R. , McClelland, J. , Celotta, R. and Marte, P. (1996), Raman-induced Avoided Crossings in Adiabatic Optical Potentials: Observation of λ8 Spatial Frequency in the Distribution of Atoms, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=620465 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created June 16, 1996, Updated October 12, 2021