Can a periodically driven particle resist laser cooling and noise?

Abstract

Studying a single atomic ion confined in a time-dependent periodic anharmonic potential, we find large amplitude trajectories stable for millions of oscillation periods in the presence of stochastic laser cooling. The competition between energy gain from the time-dependent drive and damping leads to the stabilization of such stochastic limit cycles. Instead of converging to the global minimum of the averaged potential, the steady-state phase-space distribution develops multiple peaks in the regions of phase space where the frequency of the motion is close to a multiple of the periodic drive. Such distinct nonequilibrium behaviour can be observed in realistic radio-frequency traps with laser-cooled ions, suggesting that Paul traps offer a well-controlled test-bed for studying transport and dynamics of microscopically driven systems.