Heating of cold cesium atoms by blue-detuned laser radiation

Lev Khaykovich, Nir Davidson

B. Boiron, A. Michaud, J.M. Fournier +4 more

Received 4 November 1997We study the behavior of cesium atoms confined in far-detuned laser traps and submitted to blue Sisyphuscooling. First, in a single focused yttrium aluminum garnet YAG beam, the atomic cloud has a rod shape witha6- 3mtransverse waist radius, a temperature of 2 K, and a transient density of 10

Muhammad Naeem Anwar

Yanting Zhao, Jie Ma, Xianli Zhang +3 more

Absorption spectra of cold cesium atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap are observed around the D2 transition line (6S(1/2), F=4-->6P(3/2), F'=5) with the probe laser frequency detuned near the trapping laser frequency. We observe the dispersion-like profile resulted from the stimulated Raman processes with the sub-natural linewidth, and study the behavior of the group velocity of light in trapped cold atoms. By only changing the blue and red detuning of the probe frequency from the trapping laser frequency, we are able to arbitrarily control the speed of a light pulse from subluminal to superluminal velocity.

S. Lukman Winoto

I. Manek, U. Moslener, M. Hammes +1 more

Summary form only given. The gravito-optical surface trap (GOST) confines cesium atoms by a blue-detuned repulsive evanescent wave (EW) in combination with gravity. Horizontal confinement is provided by the conservative optical dipole potential of a hollow, cylindrical laser beam, far blue-detuned from resonance. For preparing a very cold and dense cesium gas in the GOST, we use evanescent wave 'Sisyphus' cooling, which is based on inelastic reflections of the atoms from the EW. Using this method we have obtained a temperature of 3 /spl mu/K, which corresponds to an average distance of the atoms from the surface of 19 /spl mu/m. As a very important feature for attaining very high densities, EW cooling allows one to keep the atoms predominantly in the absolute ground state, thus avoiding trap loss by light assisted collisions.