Issue |
EPL
Volume 96, Number 4, November 2011
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 43001 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/96/43001 | |
Published online | 04 November 2011 |
Kinetic theory of cavity cooling and self-organisation of a cold gas
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Innsbruck - Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria, EU
Received:
6
May
2011
Accepted:
23
September
2011
We study spatial self-organisation and dynamical phase-space compression of a dilute cold gas of laser-illuminated polarisable particles in an optical resonator. Deriving a non-linear Fokker-Planck equation for the particles' phase-space density allows us to treat arbitrarily large ensembles in the far-detuning limit and explicitly calculate friction forces, momentum diffusion and steady-state temperatures. In addition, we calculate the self-organisation threshold in a self-consistent analytic form. For a homogeneous ensemble below threshold the cooling rate for fixed laser power is largely independent of the particle number. Cooling leads to a q-Gaussian velocity distribution with a steady-state temperature determined by the cavity linewidth. Numerical simulations using large ensembles of particles confirm the analytical threshold condition for the appearance of an ordered state, where the particles are trapped in a periodic pattern and can be cooled to temperatures close to a single vibrational excitation.
PACS: 37.30.+i – Atoms, molecules, and ions in cavities / 37.10.-x – Atom, molecule, and ion cooling methods / 51.10.+y – Kinetic and transport theory of gases
© EPLA, 2011
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