Europhys. Lett., 49 (4), p. 424 (2000)

Spatial diffusion of atoms cooled in a speckle field

G. Grynberg ¹ - P. Horak ^1,2 - C. Mennerat-Robilliard ^1,3

¹ Laboratoire Kastler Brossel
Département de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure
24, rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris cedex 05, France
² Department of Physics and Applied Physics, Strathclyde University
Glasgow G4 0NG, UK
³ Max-Planck Institut für Quantenoptik
Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany

PACS :
32.80.Pj - Optical cooling of atoms; trapping
42.50.Vk - Mechanical effects of light on atoms, molecules, electrons, and ions

Abstract:

Spatial diffusion of atoms in a disordered molasses created by a speckle field is studied both numerically and experimentally. It is shown that the ratio T/D_s (kinetic temperature divided by spatial diffusion coefficient) can be expressed as a simple function of the light-shift, the frequency detuning from resonance and the speckle size. We find that the transition from the jumping to the oscillating regime of laser cooling is clearly reflected in the behaviour of this ratio.

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