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Physical Review Letters

Laser cooling below a photon recoil with three-level atoms

Mark A. Kasevich, Steven Chu

Published Sep 21, 1992• 449 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a new cooling technique which is used to cool sodium atoms in one dimension to an effective temperature of 100 nK, less than 1/10 of the single photon recoil temperature ${\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$${\mathit{T}}_{\mathrm{rec}}$=(\ensuremath{\Elzxh}k${)}^{2}$/2M.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.69.1741

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Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Dec 1, 1994•33 citations
We demonstrate a new cooling technique which is used to cool sodium atoms in one dimension to an effective temperature of 100 nK, less than 1/10 of the single photon recoil temperature {\mathit{k}}_{\mathit{B}}$${\mathit{T}}_{\mathrm{rec}}=(\ensuremath{\Elzxh}k)2{)}^{2})2/2M.
We describe a new mechanism for the laser cooling of atoms. The mechanism is based on the damping of the motion of three-level atoms by laser light pressure under the condition of coherent atomic population trapping. Because of the action of this mechanism, three-level atoms can be cooled below the temperature of the single-photon classical limit, Tγ = ℏγ/kB, to a temperature corresponding to the recoil energy, TR = ℏ2k2/2MkB. It is probable that the mechanism described has a part in the recently observed laser cooling of sodium atoms below the temperature ℏγ/ kB.
A technique for cooling atoms in two dimensions to temperatures below the single photon recoil limit k{sub B}T{sub rec} = (hk){sup 2}/2M is demonstrated. This technique combines velocity selection using stimulated Raman transitions and dissipation by spontaneous emission. It is an extension of the one dimensional cooling technique that was demonstrated recently. Experimental results for sodium atoms are presented, and the limits on the minimal cooling temperatures are analyzed. Finally, the possibility of applying the Raman cooling technique to atoms in a dipole trap is discussed.
We report the first observation of subrecoil laser cooling in three dimensions, where we use the method of velocity-selective coherent population trapping. We have cooled a cloud of trapped metastable helium atoms to 180 nK, 22 times below the single-photon recoil temperature, with an enhancement in the momentum-space density of 16. We find that the efficiency with which the velocity-selective trap is populated can be augmented by Sisyphus-type frictional forces, while the cooling process is accompanied by the diffusion of atoms to states of very high velocity.
We use velocity-selective Raman pulses generated by two diode lasers to cool cesium atoms in 1 dimension to an r.m.s. of 1.2 mm/s. This is about 1/3 of the single-photon recoil velocity v rec = ℏk/M , where ℏk is the photon momentum and M the atom's mass. The corresponding effective temperature is a factor of 9 below the single-photon recoil temperature given by k B T rec /2 = 1/2 Mv rec 2 . Because of the high cesium mass, this temperature is only (23 ± 5) nanokelvin, the lowest 1D kinetic temperature reported to date.