Bragg Diffraction in an Atomic Lattice Bound by Light

Abstract

We observe Bragg diffraction of blue (422 nm) radiation from ultracold rubidium atoms bound in an infrared (780 nm) optical lattice thus demonstrating the long range periodic order in these atomic lattices. The blue light is reflected from the [201] planes of a cubic body-centered lattice at an incidence angle of 57°. The angular breadth of the Bragg resonance is limited by the size of the atomic lattice to less than 0.26 mrad. We use Bragg diffraction in combination with an additional weak infrared probe beam as a novel tool to selectively study the motion of atoms deeply bound in the potential wells.