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Francois-Regis Carminati

Publications and source records attributed to Francois-Regis Carminati.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Damping rates of the atomic velocity in Sisyphus cooling

We present a theoretical and experimental study of the damping process of the atomic velocity in Sisyphus cooling. The relaxation rates of the atomic kinetic temperature are determined for a 3D lin$\perp$lin optical lattice. We find that the damping rates of the atomic temperature depend linearly on the optical pumping rate, for a given depth of the potential wells. This is at variance with the behavior of the friction coefficient as calculated from the spatial diffusion coefficients within a model of Brownian motion. The origin of this different behavior is identified by distinguishing the role of the trapped and traveling atoms.

quant-ph

Rayleigh Scattering and Atomic Dynamics in Dissipative Optical Lattices

We investigate Rayleigh scattering in dissipative optical lattices. In particular, following recent proposals (S. Guibal {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 78}, 4709 (1997); C. Jurczak {\it et al}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 77}, 1727 (1996)), we study whether the Rayleigh resonance originates from the diffraction on a density grating, and is therefore a probe of transport of atoms in optical lattices. It turns out that this is not the case: the Rayleigh line is instead a measure of the cooling rate, while spatial diffusion contributes to the scattering spectrum with a much broader resonance.

quant-ph

Dark propagation modes in optical lattices

We examine the stimulated light scattering onto the propagation modes of a dissipative optical lattice. We show that two different pump-probe configurations may lead to the excitation, via different mechanisms, of the same mode. We found that in one configuration the scattering on the propagation mode results in a resonance in the probe transmission spectrum while in the other configuration no modification of the scattering spectrum occurs, i.e. the mode is dark. A theoretical explanation of this behaviour is provided.

quant-ph

Stochastic resonance in periodic potentials: realization in a dissipative optical lattice

We have observed the phenomenon of stochastic resonance on the Brillouin propagation modes of a dissipative optical lattice. Such a mode has been excited by applying a moving potential modulation with phase velocity equal to the velocity of the mode. Its amplitude has been characterized by the center-of-mass (CM) velocity of the atomic cloud. At Brillouin resonance, we studied the CM-velocity as a function of the optical pumping rate at a given depth of the potential wells. We have observed a resonant dependence of the CM velocity on the optical pumping rate, corresponding to the noise strength. This corresponds to the experimental observation of stochastic resonance in a periodic potential in the low-damping regime.

quant-ph