Revivals, damping, and coherence times of atomic wave packets in optical lattices

Abstract

We present a study of the time evolution of wave packets excited in optical lattices. Our model shows that, after a sudden change of the potential well depth, a breathing oscillation is created, in agreement with recently performed experiments. We predict that this motional wave packet should subsequently collapse and revive, with a rich intermediate structure comprised of fractional revivals. Moreover, we estimate the rate of damping of the oscillations due to the interaction of the atoms with light and other experimental constraints.