We explore laser cooling using light scattering between electronically excited atomic states. In a MOT with the laser beams along z replaced with beams coupling two excited states, we demonstrate efficient 3D cooling and trapping.
We demonstrate a magnetooptical trap (MOT) configuration which employs optical forces due to light scattering between electronically excited states of the atom. With the standard MOT laser beams propagating along the x and y directions, the laser beams along the z direction are at a different wavelength that couples two sets of excited states. We demonstrate efficient cooling and trapping of cesium atoms in a vapor cell and sub-Doppler cooling on both the red and blue sides of the two-photon resonance. The technique demonstrated in this work may have applications in background-free detection of trapped atoms, and in assisting laser cooling and trapping of certain atomic species that require cooling lasers at inconvenient wavelengths.
We demonstrate a magneto-optical trap (MOT) with counter-propagating two-color cooling beams in a cesium 6S1/2 6P3/2 8S1/2 (852.3+794.6 nm) atomic system. Based on the conventional MOT due entirely to the 852.3 nm cooling laser’s scattering forces, we replace one of the six 852.3 nm cooling beams with a 794.6 nm cooling beam. Our two-color MOT can efficiently cool and trap atoms from the red to blue detuning sides of two-photon resonance without pre-cooling. The technique is promising for the direct generation of correlated photon pairs in a two-color MOT based on diamond-configuration four-wave mixing.
A two-color magneto-optical trap (MOT) for trapping cesium (Cs) atoms is experimentally realized. This two-color MOT employs the radiation forces due to photon scattering from the Cs 6P(3/2) F' = 5 - 8S(1/2) F" = 4 excited-state transition, which replaced one pair of the three pairs of cooling/trapping laser beams operating on a single-photon red detuning to the Cs 6S(1/2) F = 4 - 6P(3/2) F' = 5 cycling transition in a standard six-beam Cs MOT, and can cool and trap atoms on both the red-detuning and blue-detuning sides of the two-photon resonance. Employing the two-color MOT, the background-free fluorescence detection of trapped atoms has been demonstrated. This technique will be useful for observation of weak fluorescence signal radiated from single atoms in MOT.