Few-atom effects in atom optics

Abstract

Despite the many advances and achievements in the fields of atom optics and atom cooling, there remains a wealth of dynamical detail to be filled in. While the main features of the important phenomena of atomic cooling, trapping and manipulation by electromagnetic fields are well understood, there are interesting subsidiary effects that are worth our attention. An example, which we discuss in Ch. 5 is the discovery that atomic diffusion in optical lattices may not follow the normal diffusion equation. The work reported in this dissertation represents an investigation into possible few-body effects in some atom optical configurations of interest. The effects of indistinguishability, through the exchange force, on atomic diffraction by standing wave light fields is considered in Ch. 2. In Ch. 3, after a brief overview of atomic collisions in light fields, we look at the role that the dipole-dipole interaction might play, again in atomic diffraction. Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with optical lattices, and lay the ground work for a study of the effect of the dipole-dipole interaction on the dynamics of atoms confined in such lattices.