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Kinetic theory for transverse optomechanical instabilities
E Tesio1, G R M Robb1, T Ackemann1
1SUPA and Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We investigate transverse symmetry-breaking instabilities emerging from the optomechanical coupling between light and the translational degrees of freedom of a collisionless, damping-free gas of cold, two-level atoms. We develop a kinetic theory that can also be mapped on to the case of an electron plasma under ponderomotive forces. A general criterion for the existence and spatial scale of transverse instabilities is identified; in particular, we demonstrate that monotonically decreasing velocity distribution functions are always unstable.
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