Nonmonotonic diffusion rates in an atom-optics Levy kicked rotor

Abstract

The dynamics of chaotic Hamiltonian systems such as the kicked rotor continues to guide our understanding of transport and localization processes. The localized states of the quantum kicked rotor decay due to decoherence effects if subjected to noise. The associated quantum diffusion increases monotonically as a function of a parameter characterizing the noise distribution. In this Rapid Communication, for the atom-optics Lévy kicked rotor, the quantum diffusion displays nonmonotonic behavior as a function of a parameter characterizing the Lévy distribution. The optimal diffusion rates are experimentally obtained using an ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms in a pulsed optical lattice. The parameters for optimal diffusion rates are obtained analytically and show a good agreement with our experimental and numerical results. The nonmonotonicity is shown to be a quantum effect that vanishes in the classical limit.