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AIP conference proceedings

Laser-cooling and electromagnetic trapping of neutral atoms

William D. Phillips, Alan L. Migdall, H. Metcalf

Published Jan 1, 1986• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Until recently it has been impossible to confine and trap neutral atoms using electromagnetic fields. While many proposals for such traps exist, the small potential energy depth of the traps and the high kinetic energy of available atoms prevented trapping. We review various schemes for atom trapping, the advances in laser cooling of atomic beams which have now made trapping possible, and the successful magnetic trapping of cold sodium atoms.

DOI
10.1063/1.35744

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Reports on Progress in Physics•Aug 10, 2000•183 citations
Until recently it has been impossible to confine and trap neutral atoms using electromagnetic fields. While many proposals for such traps exist, the small potential energy depth of the traps and the high kinetic energy of available atoms prevented trapping. We review various schemes for atom trapping, the advances in laser cooling of atomic beams which have now made trapping possible, and the successful magnetic trapping of cold sodium atoms.
Electromagnetic trapping of neutral atoms is a new branch of applied physics that has potential for use in very many areas, including metrology and high-resolution precision spectroscopy. It has the possibility of leading toward the spectroscopic ideal of an isolated atom at rest, available for interaction with electromagnetic field probes. We present an introduction to trapping in both dc magnetic fields and optical fields (laser beams). The basic ideas and fundamental limitations are discussed and the first successful experiments are reviewed.
Magnetic trapping of laser-cooled neutral atoms has been demonstrated at NBS and is progressing in other laboratories. Confinement of any object requires exchanging kinetic for potential energy, and for neutral atoms, this necessarily derives from shifts of internal energy levels. This is implemented through the force experienced by the atomic magnetic moment in a carefully designed, highly inhomogeneous field. Since magnetic fields of convenient strength can shift atomic energy levels by only a few gigahertz (temperature ≌ 0.1 K), neutral atom traps are very shallow and must be loaded with very cold atoms. We present some motivations for using magnetic traps and then discuss the constraints and optimal configurations of various arrangements. For example, no trap can be isotropic. Next we discuss both the classical and quantum mechanical motions of trapped atoms. These motions are important for at least two reasons: First, several schemes under study for further cooling depend on knowing the position and velocity of the atoms, as well as the vector field at each point along the orbit. Second, magnetic traps depend on the atomic moment remaining aligned with the field as the atom orbits in the trap, and this precludes rapid motion through a low-field region.
This review describes the methods of trapping cold atoms in electromagnetic fields and in the combined electromagnetic and gravity fields. We discuss first the basic types of the dipole radiation forces used for cooling and trapping atoms in the laser fields. We outline next the fundamentals of the laser cooling of atoms and classify the temperature limits for basic laser cooling processes. The main body of the review is devoted to discussion of atom traps based on the dipole radiation forces, dipole magnetic forces, combined dipole radiation-magnetic forces, and the forces combined of the dipole radiation-magnetic and gravity forces. Physical fundamentals of atom traps operating as waveguides and cavities for cold atoms are also considered. The review ends with the applications of cold and trapped atoms in atomic, molecular and optical physics.