Abstract

The cooling mechanisms for laser cooling of atoms in optical molasses have been investigated experimentally. A significant simplification over the usual three-dimensional geometry has been obtained by studying the optical molasses in one or two dimensions only. By proper choice of polarizations the behavior of a pure two-level system as well as the more complicated effects of polarization gradients on laser cooling of a multilevel atom were observed.

© 1989 Optical Society of America

Optical molasses and multilevel atoms: theory

P. J. Ungar, D. S. Weiss, E. Riis, and Steven Chu
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6(11) 2058-2071 (1989)

Optical molasses

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σ₊–σ₋ Optical molasses in a longitudinal magnetic field

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Laser cooling below the Doppler limit by polarization gradients: simple theoretical models

J. Dalibard and C. Cohen-Tannoudji
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Optical collimation of an atomic beam using a white light molasses

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