Observation of Chaotic and Regular Dynamics in Atom-Optics Billiards
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- 19 February 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 86 (8) , 1518-1521
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.86.1518
Abstract
We report on experimental observations of chaotic and regular motion of ultracold atoms confined by a billiard-shaped optical dipole potential induced by a rapidly scanning laser beam. To investigate the dynamics of the atoms confined by such an “atom-optics” billiard we measure the decay of the number of trapped atoms through a hole on the boundary. A fast and purely exponential decay, the clear signature of chaotic motion, is found for a stadium billiard, but not for a circular or an elliptical billiard, in agreement with theory. We also investigated the effects of decoherence, velocity spread, and gravity on regular and chaotic motion.Keywords
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