Mode-locked Bloch oscillations in a ring cavity

Samoylova, M and Piovella, N and Hunter, D and Robb, G R M and Bachelard, R and Courteille, Ph W (2014) Mode-locked Bloch oscillations in a ring cavity. Laser Physics Letters, 11 (12). 126005. ISSN 1612-2011 (https://doi.org/10.1088/1612-2011/11/12/126005)

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Abstract

We present a new technique for stabilizing and monitoring Bloch oscillations of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice under the action of a constant external force. In the proposed scheme, the atoms also interact with a unidirectionally pumped optical ring cavity whose one arm is collinear with the optical lattice. For weak collective coupling, Bloch oscillations dominate over the collective atomic recoil lasing instability and develop a synchronized regime in which the atoms periodically exchange momentum with the cavity field.