Sub-Doppler cooling: Sub-recoil cooling

Galina A. Nemova

F. Bardou, John Lawall, Bruno Saubaméa +4 more

Anastasia Kirpichnikova, Прудников Олег Николаевич, R. Ya. Ilenkov +2 more

We perform detailed analysis of sub-Doppler cooling limits for various atoms by direct solving quantum kinetic equation for atom density matrix in standing-wave light field generated by counterpropagating waves. It was demonstrated that the polarization gradient cooling effects are sensitive to atom recoil parameter (the ratio of recoil energy to natural linewidth) that results to limitation of sub-Doppler cooling and allows to outline the limits of well-known sub-Doppler cooling theory. We also give a comparison the cooling limits for well-known $σ_+-σ_-$ and $lin\perp lin$ configurations.

Kurt R. Vogel, T. Dinneen, Alan C. Gallagher +1 more

Experimental results on narrow line cooling of strontium atoms are presented. Doppler cooling is performed on the /sup 1/S/sub 0/-/sup 3/P/sub 1/ intercombination transition at 689 nm resulting in temperatures near the recoil limit in a one-dimensional (1-D) optical molasses. Frequency chirp cooling is successfully demonstrated as a means of expanding the cooling range.

P. R. Berman, Vladimir S. Malinovsky