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Optics Letters

Cooling and trapping of atoms by resonance radiation pressure

Arthur Ashkin, J. P. Gordon

Published Jun 1, 1979• 90 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The combined use of trapping and cooling laser beams for optical trapping and cooling of neutral atoms by the forces of resonance radiation pressure is examined. Calculations show that atoms can be held in traps as deep as 10(-4) eV at temperatures of ~10(-3) K, close to the minimum set by quantum fluctuations. Spatial confinement of atoms to a region a fraction of a wavelength in length should be possible.

DOI
10.1364/ol.4.000161

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Physical Review Letters•Jul 1, 1985•852 citations
The combined use of trapping and cooling laser beams for optical trapping and cooling of neutral atoms by the forces of resonance radiation pressure is examined. Calculations show that atoms can be held in traps as deep as 10(-4) eV at temperatures of ~10(-3) K, close to the minimum set by quantum fluctuations. Spatial confinement of atoms to a region a fraction of a wavelength in length should be possible.
We report the confinement and cooling of an optically dense cloud of neutral sodium atoms by radiation pressure. The trapping and damping forces were provided by three retroreflected laser beams propagating along orthogonal axes, with a weak magnetic field used to distinguish between the beams. We have trapped as many as 107{10}^{7}107 atoms for 2 min at densities exceeding 1011{10}^{11}1011 atoms ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The trap was \ensuremath{\simeq}0.4 K deep and the atoms, once trapped, were cooled to less than a millikelvin and compacted into a region less than 0.5 mm in diameter.
Analysis of the possiblity of cooling, trapping, and storage of atoms in the resonant field of a laser standing wave is presented. Under certain regimes of frequency scanning the laser radiation can cool atoms in low-pressure gas to the temperature T ≃ 10−4−10−3 K. Because of gradient force effects, cooled atoms will be held in the light field for a long time. Joint cooling and storage of atoms in a resonant light field is important for spectroscopic studies with an extremely high sensitivity and resolution.
The present state of research on the cooling of atomic ensembles by means of laser radiation pressure is discussed. First the basic theory of resonance radiation pressure is reviewed. The effect of recoil on the drift and fluctuations of the momentum of an atom interacting with resonance radiation is examined. There is an analysis of the forces acting on an atom in some simple light fields: a traveling plane wave, a Gaussian beam, and counterpropagating Gaussian beams. The review then focuses on the monochromatization of atoms by resonance radiation pressure and related methods for laser cooling of atoms. The roles played by the radiation pressure force and by momentum diffusion in shaping the narrow velocity distributions of the ensemble of atoms are analyzed. The lowest temperature obtainable in the radiation cooling of atoms is estimated. The basic experimental methods for laser cooling of atomic beams are described. Problems of the three-dimensional cooling of atomic ensembles and problems of localizing cold atoms in light fields, steady-state magnetic fields, and electrostatic fields are discussed. The review concludes with a discussion of some applications of cold atoms in high-precision spectroscopy, frequency standards, and atomic physics.
We report the viscous confinement and cooling of neutral sodium atoms in three dimensions via the radiation pressure of counterpropagating laser beams. These atoms have a density of about \ensuremath{\sim}106{10}^{6}106 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$ and a temperature of \ensuremath{\sim}240 \ensuremath{\mu}K corresponding to a rms velocity of \ensuremath{\sim}60 cm/sec. This temperature is approximately the quantum limit for this atomic transition. The decay time for half the atoms to escape a \ensuremath{\sim}0.2cm3{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}cm3 confinement volume is \ensuremath{\sim}0.1 sec.