Osnabrück 2002 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 301: Poster: Fallen, Kühlung, Teilchenoptik

Q 301.1: Poster

Wednesday, March 6, 2002, 11:00–13:00, Schloss

Raman sideband cooling of single atoms in a dipole trap — •Igor Dotsenko, Stefan Kuhr, Wolfgang Alt, Dominik Schrader, Yevhen Miroshnychenko, Martin Müller, Victor Gomer, and Dieter Meschede — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Wegelerstr. 8, 53115 Bonn

We demonstrate an implementation of Raman sideband cooling of single neutral atoms in a dipole trap. Individual cesium atoms prepared in a MOT at 125 µ K are transferred into a standing-wave dipole trap [1], which shall move them into a high-finesse cavity. For cavity QED experiments a constant coupling of an atom to a cavity field is desired and so the trapped atom should be cooled down to its lowest vibrational level. The measured axial oscillation frequency of the atoms in the dipole trap (330 kHz) [2] is large enough to apply Raman sideband cooling techniques. This cooling scheme requires two separate beams, whose frequency difference matches the hyperfine splitting of the Cs ground state. For this purpose we use a single diode laser and generate sidebands at 9.2 GHz by an electro-optical modulator. Carrier and sidebands are then interferometrically separated. The final temperature of atoms can be measured via comparison of Stokes and anti-Stokes components of the Raman transition. A high atomic population of the lowest vibrational level can be achieved by the described method.

[1] S. Kuhr et al., Science 293, 278 (2001)

[2] W. Alt et al., in preparation