ATOMIC TRANSPORT IN AN OPTICAL LATTICE - AN INVESTIGATION THROUGH POLARIZATION-SELECTIVE INTENSITY CORRELATIONS

We present an experimental investigation of the local dynamics and spa tial diffusion of atoms in a rubidium optical lattice using polarizati on-selective intensity correlation spectroscopy in both the time and f requency domains. Autocorrelations of the circularly polarized compone nts of the fluorescence light are shown to give access to the atomic d ynamics in a single optical potential well. By contrast, cross correla tions between opposite circular components of the scattered light prov ide information about atomic transport in the lattice through escape a nd recapture between neighbor potential wells.