Observation of atoms laser cooled below the doppler limit

Paul D. Lett; Richard N. Watts; Christoph I. Westbrook; William D. Phillips; Phillip L. Gould; Harold J. Metcalf

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169

Observation of atoms laser cooled below the doppler limit

Paul D. Lett
, Richard N. Watts
, Christoph I. Westbrook
, William D. Phillips
, Phillip L. Gould
, Harold J. Metcalf

Physics and Astronomy

National Institute of Standards and Technology
University of Connecticut

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

520 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have measured the temperature of a gas of sodium atoms released from "optical molasses" to be as low as 43±20 K. Surprisingly, this strongly violates the generally accepted theory of Doppler cooling which predicts a limit of 240 K. To determine the temperature we used several complementary measurements of the ballistic motion of atoms released from the molasses.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	169-172
Number of pages	4
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	61
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169
State	Published - 1988

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169

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title = "Observation of atoms laser cooled below the doppler limit",

abstract = "We have measured the temperature of a gas of sodium atoms released from {"}optical molasses{"} to be as low as 43±20 K. Surprisingly, this strongly violates the generally accepted theory of Doppler cooling which predicts a limit of 240 K. To determine the temperature we used several complementary measurements of the ballistic motion of atoms released from the molasses.",

author = "Lett, \{Paul D.\} and Watts, \{Richard N.\} and Westbrook, \{Christoph I.\} and Phillips, \{William D.\} and Gould, \{Phillip L.\} and Metcalf, \{Harold J.\}",

year = "1988",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169",

language = "English",

volume = "61",

pages = "169--172",

journal = "Physical Review Letters",

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T1 - Observation of atoms laser cooled below the doppler limit

AU - Lett, Paul D.

AU - Watts, Richard N.

AU - Westbrook, Christoph I.

AU - Phillips, William D.

AU - Gould, Phillip L.

AU - Metcalf, Harold J.

PY - 1988

Y1 - 1988

N2 - We have measured the temperature of a gas of sodium atoms released from "optical molasses" to be as low as 43±20 K. Surprisingly, this strongly violates the generally accepted theory of Doppler cooling which predicts a limit of 240 K. To determine the temperature we used several complementary measurements of the ballistic motion of atoms released from the molasses.

AB - We have measured the temperature of a gas of sodium atoms released from "optical molasses" to be as low as 43±20 K. Surprisingly, this strongly violates the generally accepted theory of Doppler cooling which predicts a limit of 240 K. To determine the temperature we used several complementary measurements of the ballistic motion of atoms released from the molasses.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/0000054988

U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:0000054988

SN - 0031-9007

VL - 61

SP - 169

EP - 172

JO - Physical Review Letters

JF - Physical Review Letters

IS - 2

ER -

Observation of atoms laser cooled below the doppler limit

Abstract

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