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Journal of Modern Optics

Laser control of atomic and molecular motion by sequences of counterpropagating light pulses

V. I. Romanenko, Alexander V. Romanenko, Yelena G. Udovitskaya, Леонід Петрович Яценко

Published Jan 10, 2014• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The analysis of atomic motion in the field formed by sequences of counterpropagating light pulses reveals the conditions when the field creates the trap in which the temperature of trapped atoms drops to the Doppler limit. The atomic state is described by the wave function using the Monte Carlo wave function method, whereas the atomic motion is considered in the framework of classical mechanics. Laser cooling and trapping is achieved only for non-resonant atom–field interaction. The pulse area does not matter for this effect, in contrast to the repetition period. When the motion of a trapped atom is slowed down, it oscillates around the anti-nodes of a non-stationary standing wave formed by the counterpropagating light pulses at the point where they ‘collide’. The discussed trap is also applicable for trapping and cooling of the molecules for which the matrix of Frank–Condon factors is almost diagonal.

DOI
10.1080/09500340.2013.854421

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•Oct 1, 1992•0 citations
The analysis of atomic motion in the field formed by sequences of counterpropagating light pulses reveals the conditions when the field creates the trap in which the temperature of trapped atoms drops to the Doppler limit. The atomic state is described by the wave function using the Monte Carlo wave function method, whereas the atomic motion is considered in the framework of classical mechanics. Laser cooling and trapping is achieved only for non-resonant atom–field interaction. The pulse area does not matter for this effect, in contrast to the repetition period. When the motion of a trapped atom is slowed down, it oscillates around the anti-nodes of a non-stationary standing wave formed by the counterpropagating light pulses at the point where they ‘collide’. The discussed trap is also applicable for trapping and cooling of the molecules for which the matrix of Frank–Condon factors is almost diagonal.
We discuss a possible one-dimensional trapping and cooling of atoms and molecules due to their nonresonant interaction with counterpropagating light pulse trains. The counterpropagating pulses form a one-dimensional trap for atoms and molecules and a properly chosen carrier frequency detuning from the transition frequency of the atoms or molecules keeps the temperature of the atomic or molecular ensemble close to the Doppler cooling limit. The calculation by the Monte Carlo wave-function method is carried out for the two-level and three-level schemes of the atom's and the molecule's interaction with the field, respectively. The models discussed are applicable to atoms and molecules with almost diagonal Frank-Condon factor arrays. Illustrative calculations are carried out for ensemble-averaged characteristics for sodium atoms and SrF molecules in the trap. The potential for the nanoparticle light pulses's trap formed by counterpropagating light pulse trains is also discussed.
The motion of atoms and nanoparticles in a trap formed by sequences of counter-propagating light pulses has been analyzed. The atomic state is described by a wave function constructed with the use of the Monte Carlo method, whereas the atomic motion is considered in the framework of classical mechanics. The effects of the momentum diffusion associated with the spontaneous radiation emission by excited atoms and the pulsed character of the atom-to-field interaction on the motion of a trapped atom or nanoparticle are estimated. The motion of a trapped atom is shown to be slowed down for properly chosen parameters of the atom-to-field interaction, so that the atom oscillates around the antinodes of a non-stationary standing wave formed by counter-propagating light pulses at the point where they “collide”.
The interaction of laser radiation with matter is widely used to cool atomic and molecular gases to extremely low temperatures. In connection with this, a considerable number of works on quantum optics have recently been devoted to laser cooling of matter. The principle of Doppler cooling for neutral atoms was proposed by T. Nanch and A. Shavlov, and for trapped ions by D. Wineland and H. Dehmelt. The chapter shows the scheme of the principle of Doppler cooling. The atomic beam is slowed by transmission of a pulse that occurs at the time when the atom absorbs a quantum of light. When laser cooling of atoms in a certain volume, a problem arises with optical pumping. The scheme of cooling an atomic beam by laser radiation in a magnetic field, called the Zeeman slowing, is most often used to obtain slow atomic beams.
It has been shown that the field of counter-propagating bichromatic light waves can form a one-dimension trap for atoms. The confinement of an ensemble of atoms in the trap and their simultaneous cooling to a temperature close to the Doppler cooling limit can be achieved without using auxiliary fields, by properly choosing the detuning of monochromatic components from the atomic transition frequency. The specific numerical simulation is carried out for sodium atoms. A possible application of such a trap for the confinement and the cooling of molecules with an almost diagonal array of Franck–Condon factors is discussed.
We apply Monte Carlo wave function method and classical mechanics to description of the atomic motion in the field of laser radiation. Simultaneous use of quantum and classical mechanics for description of inner and translational motion avoids quantization of the translational degrees of freedom. The calculation are carried out for the example of atomic motion in the field of counter-propagating laser waves, one of which repeats the other. It is shown that such scheme of the atom-field interaction leads to confinement of atoms and their cooling by the same laser beams for proper the atom-field interaction parameters. The cases of laser pulses, bichromatic waves and stochastic field (the model of coloured noise) are analyzed.
The force acting on a two-level atom in a low-intensity standing laser wave is calculated. On account of this force, atoms can be trapped at the loops (antinodes) of the field. By quantizing the atomic motion near the bottom of the sinusoidal potential, we have studied the atomic behavior when they are trapped in bound states as well as when they are in the free state. Laser cooling of neutral atoms was first suggested by T. Hansh and A. Schawlow in 1975. The principle involves the Doppler effect in a detuned laser beam. The absorption rate of a photon depends on the apparent frequency of the photon that is shifted ωv/c\omega v/cωv/c from ω\omegaω, where ω\omegaω is the frequency of the laser, v is the velocity of the atom, and c is the velocity of light. For a single laser beam detuned slightly below an atomic resonance frequency, the apparent frequency for atoms moving toward the laser is closer to resonance, which causes a higher absorption rate. And these atoms lose momentum when they absorb a photon from the beam. The velocity of atoms can be decreased from 10$\sp5$ cm/sec, the velocity they have when they escape from an oven, to 10$\sp2$ cm/sec (about 1mK) by a laser beam. For further cooling, counterpropagating beams are necessary. In this study we propose a new mechanism for supercooling, that is, cooling well below the Doppler cooling limit. Within a standing laser wave there exists a force called a "dipole force", which has a sinusoidal spatial dependence. Once atoms are trapped by the potential, their motion around the minimum of the potential well is that of a simple harmonic oscillator. Restricting our attention to the two lowest quantized states, we calculate transition rates between free states and bound states, from which the average residence times in the bound states can be obtained. This first quantum treatment of an atom trapped in the sinusoidal potential is restricted to the one-dimensional case. Generalization to higher dimensions is left for future research.