Sub-Doppler laser cooling of 40K with Raman gray molasses on the D2 line. (12th April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bruce, G D; Haller, E; Peaudecerf, B; Cotta, D A; Andia, M; Wu, S; Johnson, M Y H; Lovett, B W; Kuhr, S
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 50:Number 9(2017:May 01)
• Publication Date: 2017-04-12
• Subjects: atomic physics -- gray molasses -- laser cooling -- ultracold atoms -- sub-Doppler cooling; 37.10.De -- 67.85.-d; Atoms -- Periodicals; Molecules -- Periodicals; Optics -- Periodicals; Nuclear physics -- Periodicals; 539.6
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6455/aa65ea
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0953-4075

Abstract

Abstract: Gray molasses is a powerful tool for sub-Doppler laser cooling of atoms to low temperatures. For alkaline atoms, this technique is commonly implemented with cooling lasers which are blue-detuned from either the D 1 or D 2 line. Here we show that efficient gray molasses can be implemented on the D 2 line of 40 K with red -detuned lasers. We obtained temperatures of 48 ( 2 ) μ K, which enables direct loading of 9.2 ( 3 ) × 10 6 atoms from a magneto-optical trap into an optical dipole trap. We support our findings by a one-dimensional model and three-dimensional numerical simulations of the optical Bloch equations which qualitatively reproduce the experimentally observed cooling effects.