Abstract
All-optical production of quantum degenerate atomic gases has been one of the long-standing targets in laser cooling. We report a novel approach towards this direction based on a narrow-line laser cooling for strontium atoms. By employing two transitions with markedly different dipole moments, i e., the allowed 1S0-1P1(λ = 461 nm, γ = 2π × 32 MHz) and the spin-forbidden 1S0-3P1 (λ = 689 nm, γ= 2π × 7.6 kHz) transition, thermal strontium atoms were Doppler-cooled down to 400 nK, or the photon recoil temperature, in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Figure 1 shows the corresponding energy levels for cooling and trapping. The use of a narrow spin-forbidden transition successfully reduced the radiation trapping effects at a high atom density over 10l2/cm3, thus enabling us to attain the hitherto high phase space density of 0.01[1] in a MOT.
© 2000 IEEE
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