Abstract

We have developed computer programs for numerical experiments on laser-atom interactions. First, subroutines have been written that build a software atom with an arbitrary level scheme from elementary specifications, such as angular momenta and energies of the atomic levels. Second, the key operations of the semiclassical theory of laser spectroscopy have been implemented as transformations acting on the software atom. The software atom was initially used in investigations of the motion of an atom in three-dimensional optical molasses,¹ Here we discuss two new applications, saturation and resonance fluorescence of a multistate atom.

© 1993 Optical Society of America