Abstract
We present numerical calculations of the evolution of an atomic wave packet in the optical potential created by a laser standing wave. These calculations do not rely on the Raman-Nath approximation, and fully account for transverse atomic motion within the standing wave. Our results show that atomic dynamics is important even for very brief interactions, and that the wave packet can become well localized during and shortly after the interaction. We propose several atomic beam splitters and deflectors which make use of this effect. This effect may also have repercussions for recent proposals to measure the position of an atom in a standing wave by monitoring the phase shift of the optical field; these schemes require that the field does not act back on the atom to alter its position wave function. A standing wave can also localize the wave packet in momentum space, which we show can be used to cool an atomic beam in one transverse dimension.
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