Sub-Doppler cooling of sodium atoms in gray molasses

Year: 2016

Authors: Colzi G., Durastante G., Fava E., Serafini S., Lamporesi G., Ferrari G.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Trent, INO CNR BEC Ctr, I-38123 Povo, Italy; Univ Trent, Dipartimento Fis, I-38123 Povo, Italy; INFN, Trento Inst Fundamental Phys & Applicat, I-38123 Povo, Italy; Osterreich Akad Wissenschaft, Inst Quantenopt & Quanteninformat, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.

Abstract: We report on the realization of sub-Doppler laser cooling of sodium atoms in gray molasses using the D-1 optical transition (3s S-2(1/2) -> 3p P-2(1/2)) at 589.8 nm. The technique is applied to samples containing 3 x 10(9) atoms, previously cooled to 350 mu K in a magneto-optical trap, and it leads to temperatures as low as 9 mu K and phase-space densities in the range of 10(-4). The capture efficiency of the gray molasses is larger than 2/3, and we observe no density-dependent heating for densities up to 10(11) cm(-3).

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 93 (2)      Pages from: 023421-1  to: 023421-6

More Information: This work has been supported by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, by the QUIC grant of the Horizon 2020 FET program, and by Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare.
KeyWords: laser cooling; sodium; gray molasses
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.93.023421

Citations: 28
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