English

Optical Transition and Momentum Transfer in Atomic Wave Packets

Quantum Physics 2009-11-06 v1

Abstract

It is shown that the population Rabi-floppings in a lossless two-level atom, interacting with a monochromatic electromagnetic field, in general are convergent in time. The well-known continuous floppings take place because the restricted choosing of initial conditions, that is when the atom initially is chosen on ground or excited level before the interaction, simultaneously having a definite value of momentum there. The convergence of Rabi-floppings in atomic wave-packet-states is a direct consequence of Doppler effect on optical transition rates (Rabi-frequencies): it gradually leads to ''irregular'' chaotic-type distributions of momentum in ground and excited energy levels, smearing the amplitudes of Rabi-floppings. Conjointly with Rabi-floppings, the coherent accumulation of momentum on each internal energy level monotonically diminishes too.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0011018,
  title  = {Optical Transition and Momentum Transfer in Atomic Wave Packets},
  author = {A. Zh. Muradyan and V. A. Poghosyan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0011018},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

6 pages, 10 Figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:29:14.959Z