Laser cooling and Zeeman slowing of a silicon atomic beam

William D. Phillips, John V. Prodan, Harold J. Metcalf

Michael A. Joffe, Wolfgang Ketterle, Alex Martin +1 more

We demonstrate the combined slowing and transverse cooling of a sodium atomic beam. Atoms have been slowed in a Zeeman slower with increasing magnetic field and transversely cooled by two-dimensional optical molasses inside the slower. The transverse molasses increases the brightness of the slow beam and allows it to be deflected out of the intense slowing laser light.

Yu. N. Kulchin

The interaction of laser radiation with matter is widely used to cool atomic and molecular gases to extremely low temperatures. In connection with this, a considerable number of works on quantum optics have recently been devoted to laser cooling of matter. The principle of Doppler cooling for neutral atoms was proposed by T. Nanch and A. Shavlov, and for trapped ions by D. Wineland and H. Dehmelt. The chapter shows the scheme of the principle of Doppler cooling. The atomic beam is slowed by transmission of a pulse that occurs at the time when the atom absorbs a quantum of light. When laser cooling of atoms in a certain volume, a problem arises with optical pumping. The scheme of cooling an atomic beam by laser radiation in a magnetic field, called the Zeeman slowing, is most often used to obtain slow atomic beams.

William D. Phillips, John V. Prodan, H. Metcalf

Hidekazu Hachisu

Jun Umezu, Yasusada Ohta, K. Hukuda +2 more

A cesium frequency standard based on the atomic fountain configuration has the potential of improving the accuracy of primary frequency standard. For the first step toward a realization of slow vertical atomic beam (that is an atomic fountain), we have succeeded to decelerate the horizontal cesium atomic beam by laser cooling with the Zeeman tuning method. Then those slowed atoms are confined with a magneto-optical trap by four laser beams in the tetrahedral configuration. By using these trapped atoms, one can launch them upward with the upstream laser pulses.>