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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Differential two-photon spectroscopy for nondestructive temperature measurements of cold light atoms in a magneto-optical trap

Vladimir A. Sautenkov, Sergey A. Saakyan, Andrey A. Bobrov, E V Vilshanskaya, Boris B. Zelener, B. V. Zelener

Published Jun 6, 2018• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A differential two-photon spectroscopic technique for measurement of atomic temperatures in a working magneto-optical trap was demonstrated. We performed experimental and theoretical studies of two-photon resonances on Rydberg transitions 2S1/2−2P3/2−58S in cold Li7 atoms by using counter- and co-propagating laser beams. By analyzing the spectral shapes, a dependence of Rabi broadening and Doppler broadening on total intensity of cooling laser beams was obtained. We measured the temperature of Li7 atoms in the range from 0.25 to 0.75 mK. Our theoretical and experimental results are in reasonably good agreement. The developed approach for temperature measurements can be applied to cold atoms in different traps, including confined hydrogen and antihydrogen atoms.

DOI
10.1364/josab.35.001546

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A differential two-photon spectroscopic technique for measurement of atomic temperatures in a working magneto-optical trap was demonstrated. We performed experimental and theoretical studies of two-photon resonances on Rydberg transitions 2S1/2−2P3/2−58S in cold Li7 atoms by using counter- and co-propagating laser beams. By analyzing the spectral shapes, a dependence of Rabi broadening and Doppler broadening on total intensity of cooling laser beams was obtained. We measured the temperature of Li7 atoms in the range from 0.25 to 0.75 mK. Our theoretical and experimental results are in reasonably good agreement. The developed approach for temperature measurements can be applied to cold atoms in different traps, including confined hydrogen and antihydrogen atoms.
Abstract In this work, the differential two-photon spectroscopy with an adjustable angle between the beams is used for measurement of atomic temperatures in a working 40 Ca magneto-optical trap. It is demonstrated that it is possible to improve the accuracy of temperature measurements by selecting different angles. Experimental and theoretical studies of two-photon Rydberg transitions 4s 2 1 S 0 —50 1 S 0 in cold 40 Ca atoms by means of counter-propagating laser beams and laser beams with different angles are performed. By analyzing the spectral shapes, a dependence of Doppler broadening on frequency detuning of cooling laser beams is obtained. We have measured the temperature of 40 Ca atoms in the range from 4 to 8 mK for different values of the cooling laser detuning.
We demonstrate a technique for spatially resolved temperature measurement utilizing Rydberg Doppler broadening thermometry. This method employs two focused laser beams arranged perpendicularly to excite laser-cooled atoms from the ground state to a Rydberg state via a two-photon absorption process. Temperature is obtained through Doppler broadening of the spectral line. The perpendicular configuration allows for selective probing of a specific position within the atomic cloud, enabling localized temperature measurement. This technique, in principle, offers a temperature resolution on the order of nK, attributed to the exceptionally narrow natural linewidth of the involved rubidium Rydberg transition line. Furthermore, the setup enables the measurement of position-velocity correlations within the cold atom ensemble. The velocity information is extracted through the Doppler shift, whereas the spatial information is inferred from the arrival time of ions detected by a channel electron multiplier detector. We use our method to measure the local temperature in a magneto-optical trap.
We extend the technique originally proposed by [Honda et al., Phys. Rev. A 59, R934 (1999)] to measure the temperature of ytterbium and alkaline-earth-metal atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The method is based on the analysis of excitation spectra obtained by probing the ${}^{1}{\text{S}}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{}^{3}{\text{P}}_{1}$ intercombination line. Thanks to a careful analysis and modeling of the effects caused by the MOT light on the probe transition we overcome the resolution and precision limits encountered in previous works. Ground-state light shift and Rabi broadening are measured and successfully compared with calculated values. This knowledge allows us to properly extract the Doppler contribution to the linewidth, thus obtaining a reliable measurement of the cloud temperature. We finally show how spectroscopy on free-falling atoms provides an alternative method to determine the sample temperature which resembles the standard time-of-flight technique.
The spectra of the three-photon laser excitation 5 S 1/2 → 5 P 3/2 → 6 S 1/2 nP of cold Rb Rydberg atoms in an operating magneto-optical trap based on continuous single-frequency lasers at each stage are studied. These spectra contain two partly overlapping peaks of different amplitudes, which correspond to coherent three-photon excitation and incoherent three-step excitation due to the presence of two different ways of excitation through the dressed states of intermediate levels. A four-level theoretical model based on optical Bloch equations is developed to analyze these spectra. Good agreement between the experimental and calculated data is achieved by introducing additional decay of optical coherence induced by a finite laser line width and other broadening sources (stray electromagnetic fields, residual Doppler broadening, interatomic interactions) into the model.