Konstanz 1998 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 25: Fallen und Kühlung II

Q 25.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 1998, 15:00–15:15, R 511

All Optical Local Cooling and Trapping in 3D — •W. Alge, K. Ellinger, H. Stecher, K. M. Gheri, and H. Ritsch — Institut für Theoeretische Physik, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck

A conceptually very simple all optical scheme for three dimensional trapping and cooling of atoms in a bichromatic standing wave formed by two different longitudinal modes of an optical cavity is proposed and thoroughly investigated. The atoms are cooled through an efficient Sisyphus mechanism and trapped at those anti-nodes (maxima) of the stronger field where the second weaker field has a node this leading to a large effective atom-field coupling for the strong field. The scheme offers the possibility of achieving high local densities modulated at the beat frequency of the two involved modes. The results from a three-dimensional semi-classical calculation are confirmed by a full QMCWF-simulation as well as by a quantum rate equation model in the one-dimensional case. As atoms with a Lambda level scheme are the most promising system to exhibit nonlinear optical effects we investigate the possibility to trap and cool such atoms with a light field configuration compatible with the requirement of high cooperativities.