Sub-Doppler laser cooling of potassium atoms

Year: 2011

Authors: Landini M., Roy S., Carcagni L., Trypogeorgos D., Fattori M., Inguscio M., Modugno G.

Autors Affiliation: LENS and Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;
INFN, Sezione di Firenze, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;
Dipartimento di fisica, Università di Trento, I-38123 Povo (Trento), Italy

Abstract: We investigate the sub-Doppler laser cooling of bosonic potassium isotopes, whose small hyperfine splitting has so far prevented cooling below the Doppler temperature. We find instead that the combination of a dark optical molasses scheme that naturally arises in this kind of system and an adiabatic ramping of the laser parameters allows us to reach sub-Doppler temperatures for small laser detunings. We demonstrate temperatures as low as 25 +/- 3 mu K and 47 +/- 5 mu K in high-density samples of the two isotopes (39)K and (41)K, respectively. Our findings should find application to other atomic systems.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 84 (4)      Pages from: 043432  to: 043432

More Information: We gratefully acknowledge contributions by G. Roati, S. Ferrari, and F. Cataliotti. We acknowledge inspiring discussions with A. Bambini and C. J. Foot. This work was supported by INFN (MICRA Collaboration), by EU (IP AQUTE), by ERC (DISQUA and QUPOL grants), and by the ESF and CNR (EuroQUASAR program).
KeyWords: Atomic system; Detunings; Doppler temperature; High-density; Hyperfine splittings; Laser parameters; Optical molasses; Potassium atoms, Isotopes; Potassium, Laser cooling
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.84.043432

Citations: 48
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