Coherent Quantum Engineering of Free-Space Laser Cooling

Abstract

We perform a quantitative analysis of the cooling dynamics of three-level atomic systems interacting with two distinct lasers. Employing sparse-matrix techniques, we find numerical solutions to the fully quantized master equation in steady state. Our method allows straightforward determination of laser-cooling temperatures without the ambiguity often accompanied by semiclassical calculations, and more quickly than non-sparse techniques. Our calculations allow us to develop an understanding of the regimes of cooling, as well as a qualitative picture of the mechanism, related to the phenomenon of electromagnetically induced transparency. Effects of the induced asymmetric Fano-type lineshapes affect the detunings required for optimum cooling, as well as the predicted minimum temperatures which can be lower than the Doppler limit for either transition.

5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Ground state laser cooling using electromagnetically induced transparency
• Experimental demonstration of ground state laser cooling with electromagnetically induced transparency
• Observation of Collective-Emission-Induced Cooling inside an Optical Cavity
• Optical tuning of the scattering length of cold alkaline earth atoms
• Two-Photon Doppler cooling of alkaline-earth-metal and ytterbium atoms
• Two-photon and EIT-assisted Doppler cooling in a three-level cascade system
• Predictions of laser-cooling temperatures for multilevel atoms in three-dimensional polarization-gradient fields
• An Analytical Theory for the Early Stage of the Development of Hurricanes: Part II
• An Analytical Theory for the Early Stage of the Development of Hurricanes: Part I

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Λ-enhanced Sub-Doppler Cooling of Lithium Atoms in D1 Gray Molasses
• Two-step Doppler cooling of a three-level ladder system with an intermediate metastable level
• Measurement of the Spin-forbidden Decay rate (3s3d)${}^1$D${}_2$ $\to$ (3s3p)${}^3$P${}_{2,1}$ in ${}^{24}$Mg
• Temperature limits in laser cooling of free atoms with three-level cascade transitions
• Two-photon cooling of calcium atoms