Abstract

We report the confinement and cooling of an optically dense cloud of neutral sodium atoms by radiation pressure. The trapping and damping forces were provided by three retroreflected laser beams propagating along orthogonal axes, with a weak magnetic field used to distinguish between the beams. We have trapped as many as ${10}^{7}$ atoms for 2 min at densities exceeding ${10}^{11}$ atoms ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. The trap was \ensuremath{\simeq}0.4 K deep and the atoms, once trapped, were cooled to less than a millikelvin and compacted into a region less than 0.5 mm in diameter.

Keywords

TrappingRadiation pressureAtomic physicsEnergetic neutral atomRadiationMaterials scienceMagnetic trapLaser coolingPhysicsMagnetic fieldSodiumRadiation trappingLaserOpticsNuclear physicsPlasma

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Publication Info

Year
1987
Type
article
Volume
59
Issue
23
Pages
2631-2634
Citations
1426
Access
Closed

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Cite This

E. L. Raab, Mara Prentiss, Alex Cable et al. (1987). Trapping of Neutral Sodium Atoms with Radiation Pressure. Physical Review Letters , 59 (23) , 2631-2634. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.59.2631

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DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.59.2631