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Chinese Physics Letters

Velocity Selection of Atomic Beam by Laser

Cai Weiquan, Chen Hong-xin, Fusheng Li, Shu Wei, Shundi Sun, Wang Yuzhu

Published May 1, 1995• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

It is possible to deflect a group of atoms with a certain velocity from an effusive atomic beam if we use a properly detuned laser beam with a small angle off orthogonal to the atomic beam. Theoretical and initial experimental results of this simple method for velocity selection are given.
DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/12/5/004

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A method is proposed for generating a near-monoenergetic atomic beam by deflection resulting from the pressure of light of a resonance frequency. A system in which a beam of atoms passes through N periodically distributed regions of interaction with laser radiation is considered: the system ensures a high selectivity in respect of the atomic velocities. The following applications of deflection of monoenergetic atoms are considered: analysis of the velocity distribution in an atomic beam, determination of the lifetime of excited atomic states, and testing of the theory of photon statistics.
A sodium atomic beam has been decelerated and laser cooled to a longitudinal beam temperature of less than 30 mK. Subsequently these slow atoms with a typical velocity of 100 m/sec were selectively deflected by laser-light forces. The deflection angle was typically 30°. The deflection scheme permits a stabilization of the transverse velocities in the deflected atomic beam down to the quantum-limit temperature for one dimension (0.7 × 240 μK). The experimentally achieved temperatures are of the order of 1 mK.
We present an extensive set of measurements on one-dimensional sub-Doppler cooling and channeling in counterpropagating light beams. The experimental method consists of the measurement of the profile of an initially subrecoil collimated atomic beam, which is deflected by the interaction with the light field. The initial velocity of the atoms in the direction of the laser beams is varied in the range -1\ensuremath{\le}${\mathit{v}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$(${\mathrm{ms}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$)\ensuremath{\le}1 by changing the angle between atomic and laser beams. For the orthogonal circular polarization (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}^{+}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$) sub-Doppler cooling configuration, the force and the diffusion coefficient characterizing the cooling process have been determined as a function of the initial velocity ${\mathit{v}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ from the average deflection and broadening of the atomic beam profile. We observe transient effects due to the slow evolution of the distribution over the magnetic sublevels to an equilibrium. The experimental results agree very well with quantum Monte Carlo simulations and semiclassical calculations. For the orthogonal linear polarization (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\mathit{y}}$) configuration, we demonstrate the validity of the well-known Sisyphus picture for the cooling mechanism by comparing the experimental data to the results of a simple semiclassical Monte Carlo model incorporating only the dipole force and optical pumping. In weak standing waves of either circular or linear polarization, we demonstrate the characteristic features of channeling. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.