Hamburg 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 56: Poster IV

Q 56.21: Poster

Donnerstag, 5. März 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster

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. The poster presents the status of our experiment and the experimental apparatus.

[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)