Self-Sustained Oscillations in a Large Magneto-Optical Trap
2006; American Physical Society; Volume: 96; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1103/physrevlett.96.023003
ISSN1092-0145
AutoresG. Labeyrie, Franck Michaud, Robin Kaiser,
Tópico(s)Quantum Information and Cryptography
ResumoWe have observed self-sustained radial oscillations in a large magneto-optical trap (MOT), containing up to $10^{10}$ Rb$^{85}$ atoms. This instability is due to the competition between the confining force of the MOT and the repulsive interaction associated with multiple scattering of light inside the cold atomic cloud. A simple analytical model allows us to formulate a criterion for the instability threshold, in fair agreement with our observations. This criterion shows that large numbers of trapped atoms $N>10^9$ are required to observe this unstable behavior.
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