Abstract

When a particle moves inside a closed area (a “billiard”), the dynamics of its motion depends on the shape of the boundary. In some of these billiards, such as a circle or an ellipse, the motion is regular or integrable, while in others, such as the Sinai or Bunimovich stadium the motion is chaotic [1]. The simplicity of these systems made them a good model for the study of chaotic dynamics both in the classical and quantum regimes. In this work, we report on an experimental realization of an “atom-optics billiard” where laser cooled atoms are trapped inside a dark optical trap, whose shape can be varied to create different atomic dynamics.

© 2000 IEEE