# Radiation Pressure on a Two-Level Atom: an Exact Analytical Approach

## TL;DR

This paper derives an exact analytical expression for the mean force exerted by light on a two-level atom under multiple laser fields, enabling precise control in cold atom experiments.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel analytical method to compute the mean force on a two-level atom exposed to arbitrary laser configurations, surpassing previous numerical approaches.

## Key findings

- Provides a simple analytical expression for the mean force.
- Applicable to multiple lasers with arbitrary parameters.
- Facilitates precise engineering of light-atom interactions.

## Abstract

The mechanical action of light on atoms is nowadays a tool used ubiquitously in cold atom physics. In the semiclassical regime where the atomic motion is treated classically, the computation of the mean force acting on a two-level atom requires in the most general case numerical approaches. Here we show that this problem can be tackled in a pure analytical way. We provide an analytical yet simple expression of the mean force that holds in the most general case where the atom is simultaneously exposed to an arbitrary number of lasers with arbitrary intensities, wave vectors, and phases. This yields a novel tool for engineering the mechanical action of light on single atoms.