Excitation of light neutral alkali atoms

Alexander A. Zembekov, E. E. Nikitin, Alexandre I. Reznikov

G. S. Anagnastatos

A quantum cluster approach for light mixed microclusters, composed of neutral alkali atoms and considered as atomic fermion clusters, is introduced.

M. Allegrini

E. I. Dashevskaya, A. Voronin, E. E. Nikitin

Fujio Shimizu, Kazuko Shimizu, Hiroshi Takuma

We report in this talk the first demonstration of the laser cooling of a metastatic atomic bean, and the transfer of cooled atoms between two different metastatic states. The laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms have been demonstrated only on alkali atoms. It is of great interest to extend this technique to other atomic species. The standard cooling scheme for those atoms uses the ground state as the lower energy level of the cooling transition. The cooling transtion must have a sizable transition moment and its wavelength must be in the region where a continuous laser is available. Such an excited level can generally be found in alkali, alkali earths. For many transition and rare-earth metals, an adequate excited level can be found only in relatively high excited states.

R. J. Knize, Boris V. Zhdanov, Michael K. Shaffer

We have calculated photoionization rates in alkali lasers. The photoionization of alkali atoms in the gain medium of alkali lasers can significantly degrade the laser performance by reducing the neutral alkali density and with it the gain. For a ten atmosphere Rb laser and a Cs exciplex laser, the photoionization induced alkali atom loss rates are greater than 10(5) sec(-1). These high loss rates will quickly deplete the neutral alkali density, reducing gain, and may require fast, possibly, supersonic flow rates to sufficiently replenish the neutral medium for CW operation.