title: Instabilities in a magneto-optical trap: noise-induced dynamics in an atomic system
abstract: The instabilities observed in the atomic cloud of a magneto-optical trap are experimentally studied through the dynamics of the center of mass location and the cloud population. Two dynamical components are identified: a slow, stochastic one affects both variables, and a fast, deterministic one affects only the center of mass location. A one-dimensional stochastic model taking into account the shadow effect is developed from these observations and reproduces the experimental behavior. It is shown that instabilities are driven by noise and present stochastic resonancelike characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molecules, Unite mixte du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Lasers et Applications, Batiment P5, Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Li.
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wilkowski
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ringot
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hennequin
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Garreau