Transition of laser cooling between standard and Raman optical lattices
R. Zhang, Rachel Sapiro, Natalya V. Morrow +1 more
Reduced-period optical lattices based on Raman transitions allow for sub-Doppler laser cooling. An important parameter of this Raman optical lattice is the frequency difference ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{d}}$ between two virtual energy levels involved in the atom-field interaction scheme. In this work, we use experimental time-of-flight data and quantum simulations to characterize laser cooling in the Raman lattice as a function of ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{d}}$. Two different domains of laser cooling are identified. For small ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{d}}$, atoms are cooled due to a well-known mechanism that also occurs in standard optical lattices. For large ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{\mathrm{d}}$, atoms are cooled based on Raman transitions. We study the transition between the two domains of laser cooling in detail.
Physical Review A•Sep 13, 2006•2 citations