Temperature and magnetism of gray optical lattices

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Abstract
We present a theoretical investigation of the temperature and of the magnetization of atoms in one-dimensional ‘‘gray’’ optical lattices. Such lattices consist of counterpropagating beams having crossed linear polarizations, tuned on the blue side of a J→J or a J→J-1 transition, and a static longitudinal magnetic field. The variation of the atomic temperature with the magnetic field recently observed (an increase at low magnetic field; a decrease towards an asymptotic value at high magnetic field) is found for any atomic transition admitting one or two uncoupled states. This change of behavior of the temperature results from a qualitative change of the cooling mechanism and is correlated with a transition from paramagnetism to antiparamagnetism in the optical lattice. © 1996 The American Physical Society.