Predictions of laser-cooling temperatures for multilevel atoms in three-dimensional polarization-gradient fields
- JILA, University of Colorado and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440 (United States)
We analyze the dynamics of atom-laser interactions for atoms having multiple, closely spaced, excited-state hyperfine manifolds. The system is treated fully quantum mechanically, including the atom's center-of-mass degree of freedom, and motion is described in a polarization gradient field created by a three-dimensional laser configuration. We develop the master equation describing this system, and then specialize it to the low-intensity limit by adiabatically eliminating the excited states. We show how this master equation can be simulated using the Monte Carlo wave function technique, and we provide details on the implementation of this procedure. Monte Carlo calculations of steady state atomic momentum distributions for two fermionic alkaline earth isotopes, {sup 25}Mg and {sup 87}Sr, interacting with a three-dimensional lin-perpendicular-lin laser configuration are presented, providing estimates of experimentally achievable laser-cooling temperatures.
- OSTI ID:
- 20786958
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 73, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.73.033421; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Predictive Capability for Strongly Correlated Systems
Atom-field interactions: Density-matrix equations including quantization of the center-of-mass motion