Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Decreased damping of ultracold atoms in optical molasses: predictions and a possible solution

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

We derive expressions for the damping rate for a two-level atom trapped in the antinodes of an optical interference pattern. We find that the decay rate is much slower than the rate for untrapped atoms in optical molasses. Although the velocity of untrapped atoms decays exponentially in time, the velocity of trapped atoms decays only as t−1/2. We show that the slow damping rate can be circumvented by the addition of a traveling-wave component to the molasses standing wave and discuss how these results can be extended to multilevel atoms.

© 1990 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Optical molasses

P. D. Lett, W. D. Phillips, S. L. Rolston, C. E. Tanner, R. N. Watts, and C. I. Westbrook
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6(11) 2084-2107 (1989)

Observations of sodium atoms in a magnetic molasses trap loaded by a continuous uncooled source

A. Cable, M. Prentiss, and N. P. Bigelow
Opt. Lett. 15(9) 507-509 (1990)

Optical molasses and multilevel atoms: theory

P. J. Ungar, D. S. Weiss, E. Riis, and Steven Chu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6(11) 2058-2071 (1989)

Cited By

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Figures (2)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Figure files are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Equations (4)

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Equations are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved