Coherence freeze in an optical lattice investigated via pump-probe spectroscopy

Phys Rev Lett. 2010 Nov 5;105(19):193001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.193001. Epub 2010 Nov 4.

Abstract

Motivated by our observation of fast echo decay and a surprising coherence freeze, we have developed a pump-probe spectroscopy technique for vibrational states of 85Rb atoms in an optical lattice to gain information about the memory dynamics of the system. We monitor the time-dependent changes of frequencies experienced by atoms and characterize the probability distribution of these frequency trajectories. We show that the inferred distribution, unlike a naive microscopic model of the lattice, correctly predicts the main features of the observed echo decay.