Abstract

Supermolasses¹ which holds atoms much longer than the ordinary optical molasses and inhomogeneities in the distribution of atoms in optical molasses² are current cases of unexpected spatial properties of optically cooled and/or trapped atom clouds. As a speculative explanation, I put forward that mixing of the wave vectors of the driving light field which takes place on a multistate atom produces long wavelength optical forces, whose effect on the motion of the atom enormously exceeds the influence of the forces familiar from two-state atomic models.

© 1990 Optical Society of America