A STUDY OF ATOM LOCALIZATION IN AN OPTICAL LATTICE BY ANALYSIS OF THESCATTERED-LIGHT

We present an experimental study of a four-beam optical lattice using the light scattered by the atoms in the lattice. We use both intensity correlations and observations of the transient behaviour of the scatt ering when the lattice is suddenly switched on. We compare results for three different configurations of the optical lattice. We create situ ations in which the Lamb-Dicke effect is negligible and show that, in contrast with what has been stated in some of the literature, the damp ing rate of the 'coherent' atomic oscillations can be much longer than the inelastic photon scattering rate.