The interplay between classical and quantum-mechanical evolution in the optical centrifuge (OC) is discussed. The analysis is based on the quantum-mechanical formalism starting from either the ground state or a thermal ensemble. Two resonant mechanisms are identified, i.e., the classical autoresonance and the quantum-mechanical ladder climbing, yielding different dynamics and rotational excitation efficiencies. The rotating-wave approximation is used to analyze the two resonant regimes in the associated dimensionless two-parameter space and calculate the OC excitation efficiency. The results show good agreement between numerical simulations and theory and are relevant to existing experimental setups.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.96.033411