Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 10: Ultracold atoms II: Single atoms (with Q)

A 10.1: Talk

Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 14:00–14:15, Audi-B

Cavity cooling of cesium atoms: experiments in the bad cavity limit — •Arne Wickenbrock, Piyaphat Phoonthong, Lyubomir Petrov, and Ferruccio Renzoni — Department of Physics and Astronomy, Univerity College London, WC1 5BT London, UK

When an atom is placed in an optical cavity, its scattering properties may be significantly modified [1]. Based on this, new mechanisms of laser cooling were proposed [2-4]. In contrast to the standard laser cooling techniques, cooling by coherent scattering inside an optical resonator does not require a closed optical transition. This might expand the range of ultracold particles to more complex structured atoms and molecules.

We report on a series of experiment exploring cavity cooling in the bad-cavity limit. We prepare a cloud of ultracold cesium atoms in the centre of a leaky, near-confocal cavity. Then we pump the cavity with resonant laser light for a certain time and measure the achieved temperature as a function of atom-cavity detuning and laser intensity. [1]E. M. Purcell, Phys. Rev. 69, 681 [2]Horak P., Hechenblaikner G., Gheri K. M., Stecher H., Ritsch H., Phys. Rev. Lett.79, 4974 [3]Vuletic V., Chu S., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 3787 [4]P. Domokos and H. Ritsch, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 20, 1089 (2003)