Atomic Fractals in Cavity QED

Abstract

We report a clear evidence of atomic fractals in the nonlinear motion of a two-level atom in a standing-wave microcavity. Fractal-like structures, typical for chaotic scattering, are numerically found in the dependencies of outgoing positions and momenta of scattered atoms on their ingoing values and in the dependence of exit times of cold atoms on their initial momenta in the generic semiclassical models of cavity QED (1) with atoms in a far-detuned amplitude (phase)-modulated standing wave and (2) with coupled atomic external and internal degrees of freedom. Tiny interplay between all the degrees of freedom in the second model is responsible for trapping atoms even in a very short microcavity. It may lead simultaneously, at least, to two kinds of atomic fractals, a countable fractal (a set of initial momenta generating separatrix-like atomic trajectories) and a seemingly uncountable fractal with a set of momenta generating infinite walkings of atoms inside the cavity.