Quantum States of a Two-Level Atom trapped in a Helical Optical Tube

Abstract

We investigate the quantized states of a two-level Rb atom which is trapped by the optical dipole potential when the atom interacts with a helical optical tube (HOT) light field. The analysis shows that the stationary states can be defined by a triplet of quantum numbers and the corresponding wavefunctions exhibit a twisted, spiral-like 3D spatial shape.