Abstract
The production of an atomic beam of magnesium or calcium with a subthermal velocity distribution is of great interest in spectroscopy, particularly for application in metrology. This can be achieved by cooling a thermal beam of magnesium or calcium by means of a counterpropagating laser beam resonant with the 1S0–1P1 transition at 285 or 422 nm, respectively. Since the spontaneous emission is on average isotropic, for every cycle of absorption-spontaneous emission an atom is decelerated of a quantify corresponding to the absorbed photon momentum. In our experiment a monochromatic single-frequency laser at a fixed frequency was used, and the Doppler effect was compensated by shifting the atomic absorption by the Zeeman effect. Both Mg and Ca have a ground slate with J= 0, and their more abundant Isotopes have no nuclear spin, so that the cooling can be performed in a real two-level system by using proper laser beam polarization. The deceleration process is free from complication due to optical pumping between ground-state sublevels as is the case in Na or Cs.
© 1989 Optical Society of America
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