We investigate an atomic three-level Λ-system which is exposed to two counterpropagating laser fields (inducing Raman transitions) and which is closed by a magnetic hyperfine field tuned to be in resonance with the transition between the two ground states. The influence of a homogeneous gravitational field is included in a full quantum treatment of the internal and external dynamics of the atom. It is shown that the combined influence of the gravitational field and the lasers lead for specific

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... omentum values with a very high probability to a transition of the Landau-Zener type. This is accompanied by a momentum transfer resulting in an upward kick. For appropriate initial conditions a sequence of up and down motions is obtained. No mirror is needed. A gravito-optical trapping of atoms based on this effect seems to be realizable.