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Physical Review A

Laser cooling of Rydberg atoms in bichromatic standing waves

Jingzhong Guo, E. Arimondo

Published Mar 1, 1996• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a calculation of cooling of Rydberg atoms in bichromatic standing light waves. The atoms in our model are assumed to have a cascade three-level transition scheme, with the second excited level being the Rydberg state. The cooling fields, which also excite the atoms to the Rydberg state, consist of two standing waves whose frequencies are tuned near the two transition frequencies of the cascade atomic system. It is shown that the mechanisms of Sisyphus cooling and velocity-selective coherent population trapping can co-exist in such a configuration, and under certain conditions the majority of the laser-cooled atoms are in the Rydberg state.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.53.r1224

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We present a calculation of cooling of Rydberg atoms in bichromatic standing light waves. The atoms in our model are assumed to have a cascade three-level transition scheme, with the second excited level being the Rydberg state. The cooling fields, which also excite the atoms to the Rydberg state, consist of two standing waves whose frequencies are tuned near the two transition frequencies of the cascade atomic system. It is shown that the mechanisms of Sisyphus cooling and velocity-selective coherent population trapping can co-exist in such a configuration, and under certain conditions the majority of the laser-cooled atoms are in the Rydberg state.
One-dimensional velocity-selective coherent population trapping (VSCPT) in a cascade atomic configuration, with the second excited level a Rydberg state, is investigated through numerical calculations. The trapping efficiency for the case of travelling wave lasers is derived from the solution of the optical Bloch equations. For excitation by bichromatic standing waves, the energy-band approach is applied. Although the cooling process is limited by the spontaneous emission decay of the Rydberg state, the coexistence of polarization-gradient cooling and VSCPT in the case of standing waves allows the preparation of the majority of the atomic population in a cold Rydberg state.
We present a general theoretical description of laser cooling of three-level atoms in a Λ configuration in two standing waves. Detunings, intensity, and spatial phase difference of the two waves are arbitrary. We demonstrate that, for a zero spatial phase shift, sub-Doppler cooling requires equal detunings. The basic mechanism is then coherent population trapping. For different detunings sub-Doppler cooling occurs only when the spatial phases of the two standing waves are different. This effect can be traced back to a mechanism of the Sisyphus type. These schemes of sub-Doppler cooling require neither polarization gradients nor magnetic fields.
We study the laser cooling process in a complex lambda system in the presence of force-assisted bichromatic velocity-selective coherent population trapping. Our theoretical model includes atomic transitions based on two ground states, Fg=1 and Fg′=3, and one excited state, Fe=2, excited by a bichromatic laser field tuned in resonance with the Fg=1→Fe=2 and Fg′=3→Fe=2 transitions. The analyzed optical scheme may be useful for alternative transverse cooling in experiments with group III atoms (Al, Ga, In).
We show that an ensemble of atoms in highly excited states with narrow center-of-mass momentum distribution (cold Rydberg atoms) can be obtained with velocity-selective (pi) - pulses and laser cooling by velocity-selective coherent population trapping (VSCPT). Both methods use three-level cascade systems with the uppermost state being the Rydberg one where the atoms are excited and cooled. Very high fraction of atoms can be cooled to subrecoil temperatures by the use of VSCPT in standing light waves.
We show that a three-level atom in the cascade configuration can be stably trapped and cooled in one dimension by an intense bichromatic standing wave. At the two-photon resonance, rectified dipole forces result in a deep potential well which can be used to localize the atoms in space. In the vicinity of the rectified potential minimum, the spatial dependence of the dressed state energies can lead to a velocity dependence of the force which produces damping of the atomic motion. Consideration of the heating effects of momentum diffusion indicates that cooling and stable trapping at low temperatures is possible in such a bichromatic field.