title: Deviations from early-time quasilinear behavior for the atom-optics kicked rotor near the classical limit.
abstract: We present experimental measurements of the mean energy for the atom-optics kicked rotor after just two kicks. The energy is found to deviate from the quasilinear value for small kicking periods. The observed deviation is explained by recent theoretical results which include the effect of a nonuniform initial momentum distribution, previously applied only to systems using much colder atoms than ours.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadgrove
authors.forename: Terry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mullins
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parkins
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leonhardt