Abstract

Fine-structure changing collisions are one of the main loss mechanisms for magneto-optical traps (MOT) in laser cooling experiments. For a cesium MOT operating on the cooling transition 6S_1/2→6P_3/2 (D₂ line), this energy transfer process is described by Cs(6P_3/2)+Cs(6S_1/2)→Cs(6P_1/2)+Cs(6S_1/2)+δE (1) where the energy excess δE, converted into kinetic energy, allows for escape of the colliding cesium atoms from the MOT. At thermal energies the process (1) has a significant cross-section. We have measured the cross section of the fine-structure-changing process for cold cesium atoms.

© 1996 Optical Society of America