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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

All optical local cooling and trapping in 3D

Wieland Alge, K Ellinger, Herwig Stecher, Klaus M. Gheri, Helmut Ritsch

Published Sep 1, 1997• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a scheme for three-dimensional trapping and cooling of atoms in a bichromatic standing wave formed by two different longitudinal modes of an optical cavity. The atoms are cooled through an efficient Sisyphus mechanism and trapped at those anti-nodes (maxima) of the stronger field where the second weaker field has a node, this leading to a large effective atom-field coupling. Contrary to the case of a single strong standing wave, the final width of the momentum distribution is considerably less than the depth of the optical potential implying long storage times. The scheme offers the possibility of capturing atoms out of the background and achieving high local densities modulated with the beat frequency of the two involved modes. The results from a three-dimensional semi-classical calculation are confirmed by a full QMCWF simulation as well as by a quantum rate equation model in the one-dimensional case in the proper limits.

DOI
10.1209/epl/i1997-00382-3

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We propose a scheme for three-dimensional trapping and cooling of atoms in a bichromatic standing wave formed by two different longitudinal modes of an optical cavity. The atoms are cooled through an efficient Sisyphus mechanism and trapped at those anti-nodes (maxima) of the stronger field where the second weaker field has a node, this leading to a large effective atom-field coupling. Contrary to the case of a single strong standing wave, the final width of the momentum distribution is considerably less than the depth of the optical potential implying long storage times. The scheme offers the possibility of capturing atoms out of the background and achieving high local densities modulated with the beat frequency of the two involved modes. The results from a three-dimensional semi-classical calculation are confirmed by a full QMCWF simulation as well as by a quantum rate equation model in the one-dimensional case in the proper limits.
\n \nWe theoretically investigate an all optical scheme for three-dimensional \ntrapping and cooling of atoms in a single bichromatic standing \nwave with a Gaussian transverse intensity profile \nas, e.g. formed by two different longitudinal modes of a linear \noptical cavity. The atoms are cooled through an efficient Sisyphus \nmechanism and trapped at those anti-nodes (maxima) of the stronger \nfield where the second weaker field has a node. \nThis generates a large effective atom-field coupling as it is desired \nin nonlinear optical experiments with clouds of atoms. The scheme effects \nhigh local densities modulated at the beat frequency of the \ntwo involved modes. In the appropriate parameter regime the results \nfrom a three-dimensional semi-classical approach are confirmed by \na 1D full QMCWF-simulation. Extending our model to a \nmore realistic case, we include loss channels out of the system and repumping. \nFurthermore, we generalise our approach to Λ-type level schemes,\nwhich exhibit promising optical nonlinearities. Trapping and cooling \nof such atoms is predicted to be compatible with maintaining high \ncooperativities needed for large nonlinear effects.\n
We investigate the possibility of all optical trapping and cooling a single atom at the antinodes of a high QQQ optical cavity mode to which the atom is strongly coupled. For properly chosen parameters the dynamics of the cavity field introduces a novel Sisyphus type cooling mechanism yielding final temperatures much below the Doppler limit and allowing for long trapping times, avoiding the problems induced by spontaneous emission.
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.
We propose a ground-state cavity-mediated cooling scheme for a trapped atom, which is in the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ configuration and confined inside a high-finesse optical cavity, using a standing-wave cooling laser. The carrier transition can be prohibited by placing the atom at the node of the cavity field, and the blue-sideband transition can be simultaneously eliminated by exploiting quantum interference via tuning the frequency of the cooling laser. As a consequence, the ground-state cooling for the trapped atom can be achieved. Moreover, we numerically demonstrate the superiority by placing the atom at the antinode of the standing-wave cooling laser as compared with the running-wave cooling laser, and the robustness of the scheme using the standing-wave laser. Meanwhile, the cooling rate can reach the same order of magnitude as that obtained in the cavity--electromagnetically-induced-transparency cooling scheme, and the explicit expression for the final phonon number in higher order is also presented.
We investigate the external and internal dynamics of a two-level atom in a standing wave cavity. In the strong coupling regime, where the atom field coupling ggg dominates the atomic and cavity decay rates (\ensuremath{\Gamma},\ensuremath{\kappa}), a cooling mechanism entirely different from free-space Doppler cooling appears. Under suitable operating conditions, the cavity dynamics induces a Sisyphus type cooling, which is the dominant contribution to the total friction force acting on a moving atom. Simple equations describing the key properties of this effect are derived from a completely classical picture and confirmed by a semiclassical approach. The model is investigated in the bad and good cavity limits, and analytic expressions for the friction coefficient and the momentum diffusion for slow atoms are derived. Using a continued fractions expansion the cooling force for arbitrary velocities is evaluated numerically. The result is used to calculate the equilibrium temperatures of the atom of the order of $\mathrm{kT}\ensuremath{\approx}\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\kappa},$ which can be much lower than the free-space Doppler limit and agree well to those obtained by quantum wave-function simulations.
We demonstrate the possibility of three-dimensional cooling of neutral atoms by illuminating them with two counterpropagating laser beams of mutually orthogonal linear polarization, where one of the lasers is a speckle field, i.e., a highly disordered but stationary coherent light field. This configuration gives rise to atom cooling in the transverse plane via a Sisyphus cooling mechanism similar to the one known in standard two-dimensional optical lattices formed by several plane laser waves. However, striking differences occur in the spatial diffusion coefficients as well as in local properties of the trapped atoms.