Proposal for a chaotic ratchet using cold atoms in optical lattices.

We investigate a new type of quantum ratchet which may be realized by cold atoms in a double-well optical lattice, pulsed with unequal periods. The classical dynamics is chaotic and we find the classical diffusion rate D is asymmetric in momentum up to a finite time t(r). The quantum behavior produces a corresponding asymmetry in the momentum distribution which is "frozen-in" by dynamical localization provided the break time t(*)>or=t(r).

Atoms in parallel fields: analysis with diffractive periodic orbits.

We show that fluctuations in the density of states of nonhydrogenic atoms in parallel fields are strongly influenced by diffractive periodic orbits. Unlike typical systems with a diffractive point scatterer, the atomic core of small atoms like lithium and helium is best understood as a combined geometric and diffractive scatterer. Each Gutzwiller (geometric) periodic orbit is paired with a diffractive orbit of the same action.