arXiv:quant-ph/0007003 · Physical Review A
Continuous optical loading of a Bose-Einstein condensate
Luis Santos, Filip Floegel, Tilman Pfau, Maciej Lewenstein
Abstract
We analyze the continuous pumping of atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate via spontaneous emission from a thermal reservoir of atoms. We consider the case of atoms with a three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ scheme, in which one of the atomic transitions has a very much shorter lifetime than the other one. We found that in such a scenario the photon reabsorption in dense clouds at the frequency of the narrow transition can be considered negligible. If, in addition, inelastic processes can be kept negligible, we find that optical pumping can be used to continuously load and refill Bose-Einstein condensates, i.e., it provides a possible way to achieve a continuous atom laser.