Atomic motion in an optical lattice

Optical lattices are periodic light shift potentials that are created by the interference of several laser beams. In this dissertation I investigate the motion of atoms in such potentials. The center-of-mass wave-packet motion is initiated by an application of a sudden shift to the lattice potentials. The resulting oscillations are observed using a photon redistribution technique.; We first show that by utilizing a real-time feedback loop and shifting the lattice continuously in response to the wave-packet motion, we can increase, alter or damp this motion using different gains of the feedback loop.; We further show that by splitting the wave-packet between two adiabatic potentials of the lattice via quantum projection, we can construct an atom interferometer. We observe interference signal when the two components of the original wave-packet overlap. The behavior of the interference is studied as a function of lattice parameters and a consistent theoretical picture is developed.; Further, we study how well-to-well tunneling of atoms and sloshing-type wave-pocket dynamics affect each other. We find that in the regions where the well-to-well tunneling is significant, the sloshing type wave-packet oscillations are suppressed. Sloshing-type motion only occurs if the tunneling is sufficiently suppressed with an applied magnetic field.; Finally we describe a new type of optical lattice that is based on two-photon Raman transitions. The basic period of this lattice is reduced by a factor of two, compared with traditional lattices. We also show that Sub-Doppler cooling mechanism is present in this lattice.; The dissertation is concluded with the presentation of a new experimental set-up for Bose-Einstein Condensate production, which may in the future be used for the study of BEC dynamics in optical lattices.