Synchronization of internal and external degrees of freedom of atoms in a standing laser wave

Abstract

We consider dissipative dynamics of atoms in a strong standing laser wave and find a nonlinear dynamical effect of synchronization between center-of-mass motion and internal Rabi oscillations. The synchronization manifests itself in the phase space as limit cycles, which may have different periods and riddled basins of attraction. The effect can be detected in fluorescence spectra of atoms as equidistant sideband frequencies with the space between adjacent peaks to be inversely proportional to the value of the period of the respective limit cycle. With increasing intensity of the laser field, we numerically observe cascades of bifurcations that eventually end up in settling a strange chaotic attractor. A broadband noise is shown to destroy a fine structure of the bifurcation scenario, but prominent features of period-1 and period-3 limit cycles survive under a weak noise. The character of the atomic motion is analyzed with the help of the friction force whose zeroes are attractor or repellor points in the velocity space. We find ranges of the laser parameters where the atomic motion resembles a random but deterministic walking of atoms erratically jumping between different wells of the optical potential. Such a random walking is shown to be fractal.