INTERACTION OF ATOMS WITH A MAGNETOOPTICAL POTENTIAL

A theoretical study of the coherent interaction of multilevel atoms wi th a magneto-optical potential is presented. The potential is formed b y counterpropagating linearly polarized laser beams whose polarization vectors intersect at an angle phi and a static magnetic field applied parallel to the laser propagation direction. For a particular ratio o f the light and magnetic field amplitudes, the light shift at position s of purely circularly polarized light is equal to the Zeeman splittin g. In this case, for a three-level atom, one of the eigenvalues has a triangular spatial form. The diffraction of atoms from this triangular phase grating is an efficient beam splitter. The splitting is symmetr ic for phi = 90-degrees and asymmetric for phi < 90-degrees. In additi on we show that at well-defined positions in the light field, the atom undergoes nonadiabatic transitions and thus by using state-selective detection, one could observe an interference pattern produced by an ar ray of double slits.