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Annual Meeting Optical Society of America

One-dimensional sub- Doppler laser cooling

Vladimir Finkelstein, P. R. Berman, Jingzhong Guo

Published Jan 1, 1991• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A theoretical analysis is given for 1-D laser cooling below the Doppler limit of J = 1/2 ground- state atoms. The laser field consists of a pair of counterpropagating, linearly polarized low- power beams, whose polarization directions differ by an angle θ (0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2). For θ ≪ 1, the effective optical pumping time is shown to increase strongly near the nodes of the standing wave and the cooling force can be much larger than that for θ ~1. Moreover, for θ ≪ 1, it can be shown that the stimulated part of the atomic diffusion is reduced considerably as compared with that for θ ~ 1. As a consequence it is possible to achieve an equilibrium atomic distribution that, for θ ≪ 1, is characterized by a mean kinetic energy lower than that predicted to occur for θ = π/2. The equilibrium velocity distribution is not necessarily Maxwellian and thus the temperature of the atomic ensemble may not be well defined. The achievable kinetic energy is so small that the cooled atoms are trapped in the vicinity of the laser field nodes. An explanation for these effects is given in terms of Sisyphus cooling.

DOI
10.1364/oam.1991.tuvv3

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Physical Review A•Oct 1, 1996•13 citations
A theoretical analysis is given for 1-D laser cooling below the Doppler limit of J = 1/2 ground- state atoms. The laser field consists of a pair of counterpropagating, linearly polarized low- power beams, whose polarization directions differ by an angle θ (0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2). For θ ≪ 1, the effective optical pumping time is shown to increase strongly near the nodes of the standing wave and the cooling force can be much larger than that for θ ~1. Moreover, for θ ≪ 1, it can be shown that the stimulated part of the atomic diffusion is reduced considerably as compared with that for θ ~ 1. As a consequence it is possible to achieve an equilibrium atomic distribution that, for θ ≪ 1, is characterized by a mean kinetic energy lower than that predicted to occur for θ = π/2. The equilibrium velocity distribution is not necessarily Maxwellian and thus the temperature of the atomic ensemble may not be well defined. The achievable kinetic energy is so small that the cooled atoms are trapped in the vicinity of the laser field nodes. An explanation for these effects is given in terms of Sisyphus cooling.
A theoretical analysis is given for one-dimensional laser cooling below the Doppler limit of J=1/2 ground-state atoms. The laser field consists of a pair of counterpropagating, linearly polarized, low-power beams, whose polarization directions differ by an angle \ensuremath{\theta} (0\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\pi}/2). For \ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\ll}1, the effective optical-pumping time is shown to increase strongly near the nodes of the standing wave, and the cooling force can be much larger than that for \ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}/2. Moreover, for \ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\ll}1, it can be shown that the stimulated part of the atomic diffusion is reduced considerably as compared with that for \ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}/2. As a consequence it is possible to achieve an equilibrium atomic distribution that, for \ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\ll}1, is characterized by a mean kinetic energy that is lower than that predicted to occur for \ensuremath{\theta}=\ensuremath{\pi}/2. The equilibrium velocity distribution is not necessarily Maxwellian, and thus the temperature of the atomic ensemble may not be well defined. The achievable kinetic energy is so small that the cooled atoms may be trapped in the vicinity of the laser-field nodes.
We present two cooling mechanisms that lead to temperatures well below the Doppler limit. These mechanisms are based on laser polarization gradients and work at low laser power when the optical-pumping time between different ground-state sublevels becomes long. There is then a large time lag between the internal atomic response and the atomic motion, which leads to a large cooling force. In the simple case of one-dimensional molasses, we identify two types of polarization gradient that occur when the two counterpropagating waves have either orthogonal linear polarizations or orthogonal circular polarizations. In the first case, the light shifts of the ground-state Zeeman sublevels are spatially modulated, and optical pumping among them leads to dipole forces and to a Sisyphus effect analogous to the one that occurs in stimulated molasses. In the second case (σ+−σ− configuration), the cooling mechanism is radically different. Even at very low velocity, atomic motion produces a population difference among ground-state sublevels, which gives rise to unbalanced radiation pressures. From semiclassical optical Bloch equations, we derive for the two cases quantitative expressions for friction coefficients and velocity capture ranges. The friction coefficients are shown in both cases to be independent of the laser power, which produces an equilibrium temperature proportional to the laser power. The lowest achievable temperatures then approach the one-photon recoil energy. We briefly outline a full quantum treatment of such a limit.
A theoretical analysis is given of the interaction of a laser field consisting of two orthogonal, linearly polarized, low-power standing waves, with an ensemble of J=1/2 ground-state atoms. The atoms are assumed to move with velocities below the Doppler limit of laser cooling. The two-dimensional light-induced atomic force is calculated for the specific case when the field polarization directions differ by \ensuremath{\pi}/2. The effective optical-pumping time is shown to increase strongly near the nodes of the laser field, leading to a force that can be much larger than that in the one-dimensional case. The force is not isotropic, and can lead to the bunching of the atoms in velocity space.
We present a calculation of one-dimensional sub-Doppler cooling of neutral atoms, in which the atomic center-of-mass motion is quantized. The cooling field consists of a pair of counterpropagating, linearly polarized laser beams, with their polarizaton vectors at an angle \ensuremath{\theta} with respect to each other. The steady-state atomic density matrix is analyzed as a function of \ensuremath{\theta}. It is shown that, depending on the internal atomic level scheme, the equilibrium population of the quantized ground state of atomic center-of-mass motion can either increase or decrease significantly when \ensuremath{\theta} is reduced from \ensuremath{\pi}/2. These effects are interpreted based on the spatial localization of atoms in the light-induced potential wells.
In sub-Doppler laser cooling of atoms, the lowest temperatures are known to occur at low (but not too low) excitation, and the temperature increases roughly linearly with laser intensity. However, under conditions for which the lowest temperatures are obtained, the small velocity capture range and low optical pumping rate limit the number of atoms that can be collected into the cold sample. In this study, we present measurements for laser cooling of Rb and metastable He atoms for two counterpropagating laser beams with orthogonal linear polarization (lin\ensuremath{\perp}lin) over a wide range of saturation parameters and laser detunings, together with results of semiclassical (Fokker-Planck) and quantum density matrix calculations. We find that at higher laser intensity, a larger number of atoms can be collected into a final velocity distribution that is significantly narrower than that given by a linear extrapolation vs the square root of laser intensity. Two cooling mechanisms are at work: the sub-Doppler Sisyphus mechanism and also Doppler cooling. Under certain conditions that we discuss, Doppler cooling aids Sisyphus cooling by collecting high-velocity atoms beyond the Sisyphus capture range. He∗{\mathrm{He}}^{*}He∗ presents a rather unusual situation in that the minimum average kinetic energy (Eav){(E}_{\mathrm{av}})(Eav​) for purely Sisyphus cooling is comparable to the minimum value of Eav{E}_{\mathrm{av}}Eav​ with Doppler cooling alone.
We present an extensive set of measurements on one-dimensional sub-Doppler cooling and channeling in counterpropagating light beams. The experimental method consists of the measurement of the profile of an initially subrecoil collimated atomic beam, which is deflected by the interaction with the light field. The initial velocity of the atoms in the direction of the laser beams is varied in the range -1\ensuremath{\le}${\mathit{v}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$(${\mathrm{ms}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$)\ensuremath{\le}1 by changing the angle between atomic and laser beams. For the orthogonal circular polarization (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}^{+}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$) sub-Doppler cooling configuration, the force and the diffusion coefficient characterizing the cooling process have been determined as a function of the initial velocity ${\mathit{v}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\perp}}}$ from the average deflection and broadening of the atomic beam profile. We observe transient effects due to the slow evolution of the distribution over the magnetic sublevels to an equilibrium. The experimental results agree very well with quantum Monte Carlo simulations and semiclassical calculations. For the orthogonal linear polarization (${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\mathit{x}}$${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}^{\mathit{y}}$) configuration, we demonstrate the validity of the well-known Sisyphus picture for the cooling mechanism by comparing the experimental data to the results of a simple semiclassical Monte Carlo model incorporating only the dipole force and optical pumping. In weak standing waves of either circular or linear polarization, we demonstrate the characteristic features of channeling. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.