Floquet theory for atomic light-shift engineering with near-resonant polychromatic fields

Abstract

Optical trapping of atoms employs high-intensity fields that necessarily alter atomic level structure. The calculation of light shifts by perturbation theory fails for scenarios that arise, for example, when the trapping light is near an excited-state transition or for polychromatic fields. We show here that non-perturbative methods based on Floquet’s theorem elegantly handle such scenarios. We compare our calculation to precision absorption spectroscopy on cold 87Rb atoms in a bichromatic optical dipole trap at 1560 + 1529 nm. Proximity to excited-state resonances induces highly nonlinear level shifts, providing a strong test of theory. The good theory-experiment agreement suggests a new method for accurate measurements of excited-state electric-dipole matrix elements and a precision tool for engineering custom atomic level structures.