Combined Molecular-Dynamics And Quantum-Trajectories Simulation Of Laser-Driven, Collisional Systems

We introduce a combined molecular-dynamics and quantum-trajectories code to simulate the effects of near-resonant optical fields on state-vector evolution and particle motion in a collisional system. In contrast to collisionless systems, in which the quantum dynamics of multilevel, laser-driven particles with spontaneous emission can be described with the optical Bloch equations (OBEs), particle velocities in sufficiently collisional systems change on timescales comparable to those of the laser-induced, quantum-state dynamics. These transient velocity changes can cause the time-averaged velocity dependence of the quantum state to differ from the OBE solution. We use this multiscale code to describe laser cooling in a strontium ultracold neutral plasma. Important phenomena described by the simulation include suppression of electromagnetically induced transparencies through rapid velocity changing collisions and thermalization between cooled and uncooled directions for anisotropic laser cooling.