Dressed-atom description of the bichromatic force

Abstract

We develop a dressed-atom picture of the bichromatic force in two standing waves using a Floquet approach. It is based on previous work, but the approach allows for an interpretation of the velocity range of the force. It is limited to two-level atoms and one dimension, and the Floquet frequency is the beat between the two bichromatic optical fields. The force is mediated by Landau-Zener transitions between the dressed states of the Floquet Hamiltonian. Related topics have been addressed before in the literature, but not applied to this particular case.