Cold and trapped metastable noble gases

Year: 2012

Authors: Vassen W., Cohen-Tannoudji C., Leduc M., Boiron D., Westbrook C.I., Truscott A., Baldwin K., Birkl G., Cancio P., Trippenbach M.

Autors Affiliation: LaserLaB Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
Ecole Normale Superieure and College de France, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05,France;
Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, CNRS, Univ Paris-Sud, Campus Polytechnique RD128 91127 Palaiseau France;
ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University,Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia;
Institut fur Angewandte Physik, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Schlossgartenstrasse 7, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Istituto Nazionale di Otiica (INO-CNR) and European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Via N. Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino FI, Italy;
Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Hoza 69, 00-681 Warszawa, Polska

Abstract: Experimental work on cold, trapped metastable noble gases is reviewed. The aspects which distinguish work with these atoms from the large body of work on cold, trapped atoms in general is emphasized. These aspects include detection techniques and collision processes unique to metastable atoms. Several experiments exploiting these unique features in fields including atom optics and statistical physics are described. Precision measurements on these atoms including fine structure splittings, isotope shifts, and atomic lifetimes are also discussed.

Journal/Review: REVIEWS OF MODERN PHYSICS

Volume: 84 (1)      Pages from: 175  to: 210

More Information: This work was initiated by the project CIGMA (Controlled Interactions in quantum Gases of Metastable Atoms), partly financed by the European Science Foundation EuroQUAM Programme. We thank all students and co-workers for their contribution to the research presented in this work. W. V. and G. B. acknowledge support from the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), respectively.
KeyWords: Bose-einstein Condensation; Fine-structure; Helium-atoms; Nobel Lecture; 2 S-1(0); Photoassociation Spectroscopy; Precision-measurement; Ultracold Collisions; Ionizing Collisions; Magnetooptical Trap
DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.84.175

Citations: 116
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