Abstract

Much research has been carried out on the dipole or gradient force.^[1] Such a force involves the interaction of an optical field gradient with the induced electric dipole moment of an atom. It has been pointed out^[2] that the trajectory of a two-level atom interacting with an optical field gradient can in certain circumstances be split into two paths, each path containing atoms in one of the two orthogonal dressed states. Due to the state-selecting deflection in a field gradient, this effect is often referred to as the optical Stern-Gerlach effect.

© 1992 IQEC