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The Rochester Conferences on Coherence and Quantum Optics and the Quantum Information and Measurement meeting

Slowing and Cooling Atoms in a Bistable Optical Cavity

Ilya Sh. Averbukh, Mark Y. Vilensky, Yehiam Prior

Published Jan 1, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a generic approach for nonresonant laser cooling of atoms/molecules based on their interaction with a bistable optical cavity. The cooling mechanism is of Sisyphus type due to hysteretic character of the cavity field.
DOI
10.1364/cqo.2007.csua21

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•Apr 25, 2008•0 citations
We present a new approach to nonresonant laser deceleration and cooling of atoms based on their interaction with a bistable optical cavity. The cooling mechanism presents a photonic version of Sisyphus cooling, in which the conservative motion of atoms is interrupted by sudden transitions between two stable states of the cavity mode. The mechanical energy is extracted due to the hysteretic nature of those transitions. The bistable character of the cavity may be achieved by an external feedback loop, or by means of nonlinear intracavity optical elements. In contrast to the conventional cavity cooling, in which atoms experience a viscoustype force, bistable cavity cooling imitates “dry friction” and stops atoms much faster. Based on this novel approach, we explore the prospects of using optical bistability for efficient radiation pressure cooling of micromechanical devices that are modeled as a Fabry-Perot resonator with one fixed and one oscillating mirror. In all cases, analytical results are presented, supported by realistic numerical examples.
We point out a laser cooling method for atoms, molecules, or ions at low saturation and large detuning from the particles' resonances. The moving particle modifies the field inside a cavity with a time delay characteristic of the cavity linewidth, while the field acts on the particle via the light shift. The dissipative mechanism can be interpreted as Doppler cooling based on preferential scattering rather than preferential absorption. It depends on particle properties only through the coherent scattering rate, opening new possibilities for optically cooling molecules or interacting atoms.
We propose a novel generic approach to laser cooling based on the nonresonant interactions of atoms and molecules with optical standing waves experiencing sudden phase jumps. The technique, termed "optical shaking," combines the elements of stochastic cooling and Sisyphus cooling. An optical signal that measures the instantaneous force applied by the standing wave on the ensemble of particles is used as feedback to determine the phase jumps. This guarantees a drift towards lower energies and higher phase-space density without the loss of particles typical of evaporative cooling.
The dipole force, which avoids the closed cycle of pumping and spontaneous emission that renders laser cooling unsuitable for molecules, is conservative: without dissipation, particles entering a trap retain the energy to escape. Fortunately, dissipation need not involve spontaneous emission if it instead results from the decoherence or decay of the optical trapping field that is coupled to the particle. To enhance the weak attraction of an atom to its reflection, cavity-mediated cooling recycles light through multiple reflections, amplifying the force and the retardation - a process related to the mechanical amplification in a near confocal cavity [5]. Resonant cavities and structures can increase the retardation, but not the intensity, even when the atoms or particles lie outside them - e.g. when the cavity is the narrow-band coating of a single mirror. Plasmon resonances of a structured metal can enhance both the delay and the optical intensity. Such processes, possible with arrays of micromirrors, resemble speckle field cooling [6], except that spontaneous emission is again replaced by decay of the optical field, and offer a new class of cooling mechanisms in which weak cooling is extended over a broad array, rather than concentrated at the centre of a single external cavity.