Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

White light cooling of an atomic beam

Miao Zhu, Chris W. Oates, J. L. Hall

Published May 12, 1991• 0 citations

Abstract

To compensate the Doppler shift in the laser cooling process, two methods were developed:frequency chirping,1 which tunes the laser frequency rapidly, and a spatially varying magnetic field,2 which tunes The atomic energy level. An alternative approach is to use laser light with a continuous spectrum (white light).3,4 Using only a counterpropagating white-light beam will decelerate the atoms in the beam, hut it will not yield a large velocity compression.4,5 To achieve significant cooling, Hoffnagle5 proposed the use of an additional single-frequency laser beam, copropagating with the atomic beam, to counterbalance the nonresonant scattering force from the Lorentzian tail of the atomic transition.

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