Non-Gaussian Velocity Distributions in Optical Lattices

Johan Jersblad (1, 2) , Harald Ellmann (1) , Kristian Stöchkel (2) , Anders Kastberg (2) , Laurent Sanchez-Palencia (3) , Robin Kaiser (4)

1 Stockholm University
2 Department of Physics
3 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
4 LOD - Laboratoire Ondes et Désordre

We present a detailed experimental study of the velocity distributionof atoms cooled in an optical lattice. Our results are supported byfull-quantum numerical simulations. Even though the Sisyphus effect,the responsible cooling mechanism, has been used extensively in manycold atom experiments, no detailed study of the velocity distributionhas been reported previously. For the experimental as well as for the numerical investigation, it turns out that a Gaussian function is not the one that best reproduce the data for allparameters. We also fit the data to alternative functions, such asLorentzians, Tsallis functions and double Gaussians. In particular, adouble Gaussian provides a more precise fitting to our results.

Mots clés: atomes froids; distributions de vitesse

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Johan Jersblad, Harald Ellmann, Kristian Stöchkel, Anders Kastberg, Laurent Sanchez-Palencia, et al.. Non-Gaussian Velocity Distributions in Optical Lattices. 2003. ⟨hal-00000311v1⟩