abstract

• We establish a model to describe any alkali-metal atom interacting with a position- and time-dependent magnetic field. It includes the hyperfine structure of the atom and quantizes its center-of-mass motion. The model is used to characterize a proposed phase-space selector. It consists of a method based on hyperfine magnetic dipole transitions to prepare samples of atoms with well-defined position and velocity. The evolution of the atom is determined analytically and relevant physical quantities such as the probability of transition and the expected values of position and momentum are analyzed. It is concluded that the phase-space selector can lead to samples of atoms whose width in velocity tends to those obtained using velocity-dependent Raman transitions. © 2014 American Physical Society.

authors

• Castaños L.O.
• Gómez García Eduardo

publication date

• 2014-01-01

published in

• Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics  Journal

keywords

• Alkali metal atoms; Center of mass motion; Hyperfine structure; Magnetic dipole transition; Microwave transitions; Physical quantities; Time-dependent magnetic field; Velocity-dependent; Alkali metals; Phase space methods; Atoms

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1103/PhysRevA.89.013406

start page

end page

volume

• 89

issue

• 1