Quantum versus classical dynamics in the optical centrifuge

Tsafrir Armon, Lazar Friedland*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

The interplay between classical and quantum-mechanical evolution in the optical centrifuge (OC) is discussed. The analysis is based on the quantum-mechanical formalism starting from either the ground state or a thermal ensemble. Two resonant mechanisms are identified, i.e., the classical autoresonance and the quantum-mechanical ladder climbing, yielding different dynamics and rotational excitation efficiencies. The rotating-wave approximation is used to analyze the two resonant regimes in the associated dimensionless two-parameter space and calculate the OC excitation efficiency. The results show good agreement between numerical simulations and theory and are relevant to existing experimental setups.

Original languageEnglish
Article number033411
JournalPhysical Review A
Volume96
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 18 Sep 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Physical Society.

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