Alternative method to control radiative vortex forces in a magneto-optical trap

We present an experimental and theoretical study of controlling the atomic spatial distributions in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). With a diaphragm we can vary the waist and power of one of the cooling laser beams and we can change parameters of large-diameter, parallelogram-shaped atomic orbits. We show that the radiative force generated by the repumping MOT laser has to be taken into consideration. Computer simulations of atomic trajectories explain the observed spatial structures, and we employ these simulations to present potential applications of controlling the diaphragm diameter as a function of time. A potential use of controlled vortex forces seems to have a great significance in recently presented important new methods to investigate cold atom collisions in the MOT, which were recently published.