| Author(s): |
Elizabeth A. Donley; Tara C. Liebisch; Eric M. Blanshan; John E. Kitching; |
| Title: |
Number Enhancement for Compact Laser-Cooled Atomic Samples by use of Stimulated Radiation Forces |
| Published: |
June 02, 2010 |
| Abstract: |
For cold samples of laser-cooled atoms to be most useful in emerging technologies such as compact atomic clocks and sensors, it is necessary to achieve small sample sizes while retaining a large number of cold atoms. We consider achieving large atom numbers in a small system is a major challenge for producing miniaturized laser-cooled atomic clocks, since the number of captured atoms in a vapor-cell magneto-optical trap (MOT) scales as the fourth power of the laser beam diameter. This strong dependence on size is fundamentally set by the maximum spontaneous light force hbar k gamma /2, where hbar k is the photon momentum and gamma /2 is the maximum spontaneous photon scatter rate of a saturated transition of linewidth gamma. We are attempting to surmount the fundamental limit imposed by spontaneous emission by using bichromatic cooling, which is a technique that uses stimulated emission to slow the atoms. We have built a table-top experiment that uses stimulated-emission bichromatic cooling to pre-cool atoms and dramatically enhance the trappable atom number in a small MOT. We have designed the apparatus in a way that will let us test how bichromatic cooling scales with miniaturization. Here we report on our first experimental results of cooling a thermal beam of Rubidium atoms down to MOT capture velocities. |
| Proceedings: |
Proc. 2010 Intl. Freq. Cont. Symp. |
| Pages: |
pp. 125 - 128 |
| Location: |
Newport Beach, CA |
| Dates: |
June 1-4, 2010 |
| Keywords: |
atomic clocks;laser cooling |
| Research Areas: |
Physics, Atomic Physics, Laser Cooling |
| PDF version: |
 Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (865KB) |
