Formation of two-dimensional nonspreading atomic wave packets in the field of two standing light waves

The formation of two-dimensional nonspreading atomic wave packets produced in the interaction of a beam of two-level atoms with two standing light waves polarised in the same plane is considered. The mechanism providing a dispersionless particle dynamics is the balance of two processes: a rapid decay of the atomic wave function away from the field nodes due to spontaneous transitions to nonresonance states and the quantum broadening of the wave packets formed in the close vicinity of field nodes. Coordinate-dependent amplitudes and phases of the two-dimensional wave packets were found for the j_g=0 ↔ j_e=1 transition.