New cooling mechanisms for atoms and molecules

Beige, Almut, Freegarde, Tim and Renzoni, Ferruccio (2011) New cooling mechanisms for atoms and molecules. Journal of Modern Optics, 58 (15), 1297-1299. (doi:10.1080/09500340.2011.615472).

Record type: Review

Abstract

The special issue of September 2011, Journal of Modern Optics, presents papers regarding the cooling of trapped atoms and ions to the micro and nanokelvin temperatures needed for quantum coherence and degeneracy. As part of this special issue, Wickenbrock and colleagues report the experimental verification of the collective enhancement of atom cavity interactions. Their experiment confines a large number N of cesium atoms with the help of a MOT inside an optical cavity. Liu and Yu present a theoretical study for cavity-based laser cooling of a V-type three level atom in a high-finesse optical cavity. Hemmerling and Robb investigate the possibility of cooling an atomic gas inside an optical cavity using blue-detuned laser light. The authors study two different scenarios, a cavity pump and an atom-pump configuration. Xuereb and co-researchers apply transfer matrix approach to atoms inside a ring cavity and show that it is possible to greatly improve the optomechanical force acting on a polarisable particle by using a gain medium to amplify the optical back-action.

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