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Efficient Laser Cooling of 85Rb Atoms to the Recoil Temperature Limit

Chang Cang Huang, Pei-Chen Kuan, Shau-Yu Lan

Published Jul 31, 2017• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

We demonstrate laser cooling of 85Rb atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice. We follow the two-step degenerate Raman sideband cooling scheme, Kerman el al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 439 (2000), where a fast cooling of atoms to an auxiliary state followed by a slow cooling to a dark state. This method has the advantage of independent control of the heating rate and cooling rate from the optical pumping beam. We operate the lattice at Lamb-Dicke parameter eta=0.45 and show the cooling of spin-polarized 85Rb atoms to the recoil temperature in both dimension within 2.4 ms with 90% of initial atom numbers.

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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference•May 12, 2000•0 citations
We demonstrate laser cooling of 85Rb atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice. We follow the two-step degenerate Raman sideband cooling scheme, Kerman el al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 439 (2000), where a fast cooling of atoms to an auxiliary state followed by a slow cooling to a dark state. This method has the advantage of independent control of the heating rate and cooling rate from the optical pumping beam. We operate the lattice at Lamb-Dicke parameter eta=0.45 and show the cooling of spin-polarized 85Rb atoms to the recoil temperature in both dimension within 2.4 ms with 90% of initial atom numbers.
We demonstrate the laser cooling of 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice. We follow the two-step degenerate Raman sideband cooling scheme [Kerman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 439 (2000)], where a fast cooling of atoms to an auxiliary state is followed by a slow cooling to a dark state. This method has the advantage of independent control of the heating rate and cooling rate from the optical pumping beam. We operate the lattice at a Lamb-Dicke parameter $\ensuremath{\eta}=0.45$ and show the cooling of spin-polarized 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms to the recoil temperature in both dimensions within 2.4 ms with the aid of adiabatic cooling.
We report on the implementation of degenerate Raman sideband cooling of 40K^{40}\mathrm{K}40K atoms. The scheme incorporates a three-dimensional (3D) optical lattice, which confines the atoms and drives the Raman transitions. The optical cooling cycle is closed by two optical pumping beams. The wavelength of the laser beams forming the lattice is close to the D2{\mathrm{D}}_{2}D2​ atomic transition, while the optical pumping is operated near the D1{\mathrm{D}}_{1}D1​ transition. With this cooling method, we achieve a temperature of $\ensuremath{\sim}1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ of a cloud with $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{7}$ atoms. This corresponds to a phase space density of $\ensuremath{\ge}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. Moreover, the fermionic ensemble is spin polarized to conditions which are favorable for subsequent evaporative cooling. We study the dependence of the cooling scheme on several parameters, including the applied magnetic field and the detuning, duration, and intensity profile of the optical pumping beams. Adding this optical cooling stage to current Fermi gas experiments can improve the final conditions and increase the data rate.
We report on a realization of sub-Doppler laser cooling of 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K atoms using degenerate three-dimensional Raman sideband cooling. We take advantage of the well-resolved excited hyperfine states on the D1{D}_{1}D1​ optical transition to produce spin-polarized samples with $1.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{8}$ atoms at temperatures of 1.8 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. The phase-space densities are $\ensuremath{\ge}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$, which significantly improves the initial conditions for a subsequent evaporative cooling step. The presented cooling technique using the D1{D}_{1}D1​ line can be adapted to other atomic species and is applicable to high-resolution imaging schemes in far off-resonant optical lattices.
We report Raman sideband cooling of a single sodium atom to its three-dimensional motional ground state in an optical tweezer. Despite a large Lamb-Dicke parameter, high initial temperature, and large differential light shifts between the excited state and the ground state, we achieve a ground-state population of 93.5(7)% after 53 ms of cooling. Our technique includes addressing high-order sidebands, where several motional quanta are removed by a single laser pulse, and fast modulation of the optical tweezer intensity. We demonstrate that Raman sideband cooling to the three-dimensional motional ground state is possible, even without tight confinement and low initial temperature.
We utilize the dark state in a $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}$-type three-level system to cool an ensemble of 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms in an optical lattice [Morigi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4458 (2000)]. The common suppression of the carrier transition of atoms with different vibrational frequencies allows them to reach a subrecoil temperature of 100 nK after being released from the optical lattice. A nearly zero vibrational quantum number is determined from the time-of-flight measurements and adiabatic expansion process. The features of sideband cooling are examined in various parameter spaces. Our results show that dark-state sideband cooling is a simple and compelling method for preparing a large ensemble of atoms into their vibrational ground state of a harmonic potential and can be generalized to different species of atoms and molecules for studying ultracold physics that demands recoil temperature and below.
Summary form only given. Laser cooled atoms play a critical role in modern designs of frequency standards such as atomic fountains. Recently, an elegant and efficient method of two-dimensional cooling to the vibrational ground state of a far-off resonance optical lattice has been demonstrated. This method is a variant of Raman sideband cooling based on the Raman transitions between the vibrational manifolds of adjacent Zeeman substates. A static magnetic field is used to tune the Zeeman levels so that Raman resonance occurs on the red sideband and results in cooling. Two circularly polarized fields are used to recycle the atoms for repetitive Raman cooling. Unfortunately, a direct application of this scheme to frequency standards meets with several difficulties. Stimulated by these concepts and results, we propose a new variant of transverse sideband cooling, where these problems are avoided, while still maintaining most of the attractive features. The field configuration used for the optical lattice consists of three linearly polarized beams having equal amplitudes and propagating in the xy plane with angles of 2/spl pi//3 between each other. The polarization vectors of these beams are tilted through a small angle with respect to the z-axis. All the beams have the same frequency far-detuned to the red of the D/sub 2/ resonance line. Raman transitions between vibrational levels of adjacent magnetic substates are induced by the small in-plane component of the field. Two other important requirements for Raman sideband cooling are a uniform energy shift of the magnetic sublevels and optical pumping.