Trapping atoms by rectified forces in bichromatic optical superlattices
Grimm R. , Soding J. , Ovchinnikov Yu. B.
We consider the trapping of atoms by sub-Doppler rectified dipole forces in the bichromatic superlattice which forms as macroscopic spatial interference patterns of two superimposed individual optical lattices that differ in frequency and wavelength. A simple model is presented for a three-dimensional calculation of the rectified forces and for a semiclassical Monte Carlo simulation of the trapping process. Our results show that the macroscopic bichromatic traps created at the superlattice sites are very promising for spatially compressing atomic ensembles released, e.g., from a conventional magneto-optical trap.© 1995 American Institute of Physics.