Spontaneous Crystallization of Light and Ultracold Atoms
Spontaneous Crystallization of Light and Ultracold Atoms
Coherent scattering of light from ultracold atoms involves an exchange of energy and momentum introducing a wealth of nonlinear dynamical phenomena. As a prominent example, particles can spontaneously form stationary periodic configurations that simultaneously maximize the light scattering and minimize the atomic potential energy in the emerging optical lattice. Such …