A theoretical study is carried out for the cavity cooling of a
Λ-type three level atom in a high-finesse optical cavity with a weakly driven field. Analytical expressions for the friction, diffusion coefficients and the equilibrium temperatures are obtained by using the Heisenberg equations, then they are calculated numerically and shown graphically as a function of controlling parameters. For a suitable choice of these parameters, the dynamics of the cavity field interaction with the
Λ-type three-level atom introduces a sisyphus cooling mechanism yielding lower temperatures below the Doppler limit and allowing larger cooling rate, avoiding the problems induced by spontaneous emission.
A theoretical study is carried out for the cavity cooling of a V-type three-level atom in a high-finesse optical cavity driven by a light field. The dynamical equations are obtained by a semiclassical approach, which is based on the joint atom-field Wigner function of both the motional atomic degrees of freedom and cavity field, including the spontaneous emission and cavity decay. The numerical results show that the highest cooling rate of the V-type three-level atom can be increased 10 times that of a two-level atom. In addition, the cooling rate can be significantly improved by modulating parameters.