Chaotic scattering of atoms at a standing laser wave

Abstract

Atoms, propagating across a detuned standing laser wave, can be scattered in a chaotic way even in the absence of spontaneous emission and any modulation of the laser field. Spontaneous emission masks the effect in some degree, but the Monte Carlo simulation shows that it can be observed in real experiments by the absorption imaging method or depositing atoms on a substrate. The effect of chaotic scattering is explained by a specific behavior of the dipole moments of atoms crossing the field nodes and is shown to depend strongly on the value of the atom-laser detuning.