Dissipative Light Mask Generated by a Nonuniformly Polarized Field for Atomic Lithography

The localization of atoms in a deep optical potential is analyzed in the framework of the completely quantum description of the motion of the atoms using the kinetic equation for the density matrix. It is shown that the laser cooling of the neutral atoms in the deep optical potential at a relatively large detuning of the light field from resonance can be used as a method for forming spatially localized atomic structures with a high contrast for atomic lithography. This method is alternative to nondissipative light masks.