Number Enhancement for Compact Laser-Cooled Atomic Samples by use of Stimulated Radiation Forces

Published

June 2, 2010

Author(s)

Elizabeth A. Donley, Tara C. Liebisch, Eric M. Blanshan, John E. Kitching

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 Title

Proc. 2010 Intl. Freq. Cont. Symp.

Conference Dates

June 1-4, 2010

Conference Location

Newport Beach, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

atomic clocks, laser cooling

Citation

Donley, E. , Liebisch, T. , Blanshan, E. and Kitching, J. (2010), Number Enhancement for Compact Laser-Cooled Atomic Samples by use of Stimulated Radiation Forces, Proc. 2010 Intl. Freq. Cont. Symp., Newport Beach, CA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905990 (Accessed October 24, 2025)