Cooling and Trapping of Neutral Atoms
Abstract
Quantization of Atomic Motion. Atoms can be easily cooled to KE to below 0.2 MHz, below the light shifts in a weak standing wave. At low excitation rates, an optical standing wave may be viewed as producing a sinusoidal potential. Atoms are then confined in the lambda space between the planes of the standing wave, but have a deBroglie wavelength approx. lambda 10 or more. Thus their motion is quantized by the light field. We have evidence of this quantization of motion from direct rf spectroscopy of the vibrational states in the wells. The position of the rf peaks do not correspond to the calculated energy intervals, and do ot shift with laser parameters as expected.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA276957
Entities
People
- Harold Metcalf
Organizations
- Stony Brook University