DYNAMICAL EFFECTS IN ATOM OPTICS

We present numerical calculations of the evolution of an atomic wave p acket in the optical potential created by a laser standing wave. These calculations do not rely on the Raman-Nath approximation, and fully a ccount for transverse atomic motion within the standing wave. Our resu lts show that atomic dynamics is important even for very brief interac tions, and that the wave packet can become well localized during and s hortly after the interaction. We propose several atomic beam splitters and deflectors which make use of this effect. This effect may also ha ve repercussions for recent proposals to measure the position of an at om in a standing wave by monitoring the phase shift of the optical fie ld; these schemes require that the field does not act back on the atom to alter its position wave function. A standing wave can also localiz e the wave packet in momentum space, which we show can be used to cool an atomic beam in one transverse dimension.