Hulet, Randall G.2009-06-032009-06-031993Chen, Jian. "Investigation of atomic motion in an intense standing light wave and application to adiabatic laser cooling of atoms." (1993) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/16609">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/16609</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/16609The effect of the dipole force and its fluctuation on the motion of Li atoms in an intense, one-dimensional, near-resonant standing light wave has been investigated, both theoretically and experimentally. The duration of the interaction of the atoms with the standing wave was varied from several tens of spontaneous emission lifetimes to several hundred. For a standing wave frequency blue-detuned from resonance, diffusive heating can dominate the time-averaged dissipative dipole force so that there is no steady-state momentum distribution. However, for sufficiently large blue detunings the rate of diffusion is so slow that the resulting distribution approaches a quasi-steady state. For red detunings the diffusion is balanced with the force and a true steady-state is achieved. A Monte Carlo method based on the density matrix equations in the dressed-state representation is applied to simulate the atomic motion. The dynamics of atom channeling is studied. One of the important applications of this investigation is adiabatic laser cooling of atoms. Lithium atoms channeled in the nodes of an intense standing wave radiation field are cooled to near the recoil limit, a single photon's momentum $\hbar{k}$, by adiabatically reducing the radiation intensity. The final momentum distribution has a narrow component with a root mean squared momentum of 2 $\hbar{k}$ in one-dimension. The data are compared with the results obtained by the Monte Carlo method. This process may be useful for cooling and increasing the phase-space density of atoms confined in a magnetic trap.190 p.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.Atomic physicsOpticsRadiationThesisThesis Phys. 1993 Chen