Polarization gradient cooling of single atoms in optical dipole traps

Abstract

We experimentally investigate ${\sigma }^{+}$-${\sigma }^{-}$ polarization gradient cooling~(PGC) of a single ${}^{87}$Rb atom in a tightly focused dipole trap and show that the cooling limit strongly depends on the polarization of the trapping field. For optimized cooling light power, the temperature of the atom reaches~$10.4(6)\mu$K in a linearly polarized trap, approximately five times lower than in a circularly polarized trap. The inhibition of PGC is qualitatively explained by the fictitious magnetic fields induced by the trapping field. We further demonstrate that switching the trap polarization from linear to circular after PGC induces only minor heating.

6 figures, 5 pages

References in corpus (6)

• Coherent Excitation Transfer in a Spin Chain of Three Rydberg Atoms
• Strong interaction between light and a single trapped atom without a cavity
• Cooling a single atom in an optical tweezer to its quantum ground state
• Energy distribution and cooling of a single atom in an optical tweezer
• Long-distance atom-photon entanglement
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Nonlinear photon-atom coupling with 4Pi microscopy
• Observation of the Mollow Triplet from an optically confined single atom
• Controllable atomic collision in a tight optical dipole trap
• A Generalized Theory for Optical Cooling of a Trapped Atom with Spin
• Role of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) in laser cooling of atoms
• Fano Resonance in Excitation Spectroscopy and Cooling of an Optically Trapped Single Atom