Light transport in cold atoms: the fate of coherent backscattering in the weak localization regime

D. Wilkowski (1) , Y. Bidel (1) , T. Chanelière (1) , R. Kaiser (1) , B. Klappauf (1) , G. Labeyrie (1) , C. A. Muller (1) , C. Miniatura (1)

1 LOD - Laboratoire Ondes et Désordre

The recent observation of coherent backscattering (CBS) of light by atomshas emphasized the key role of the velocity spread and of thequantum internal structure of the atoms. Firstly, using highly resonantscatterers imposes very low temperatures of the disordered medium in order tokeep the full contrast of the CBS interference. This criterion is usuallyachieved with standard laser cooling techniques. Secondly, a non trivialinternalatomic structure leads to a dramatic decrease of the CBS contrast. Experimentswith Rubidium atoms (with a non trivial internal structure) and with Strontium(with the simplest possible internal structure) show this behaviour and confirmtheoretical calculations.

Mots clés: Multiple scattering; Atom; Cooling

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]; Optique [physics.optics]

D. Wilkowski, Y. Bidel, T. Chanelière, R. Kaiser, B. Klappauf, et al.. Light transport in cold atoms: the fate of coherent backscattering in the weak localization regime. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 2003, 328, pp.157. ⟨hal-00000303⟩