Observation of Collective-Emission-Induced Cooling inside an Optical Cavity
arXiv:quant-ph/0208100 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.063003
Abstract
We report the observation of collective-emission-induced, velocity-dependent light forces. One third of a falling sample containing 3 x 10^6 cesium atoms illuminated by a horizontal standing wave is stopped by cooperatively emitting light into a vertically oriented confocal resonator. We observe decelerations up to 1500 m/s^2 and cooling to temperatures as low as 7 uK, well below the free space Doppler limit. The measured forces substantially exceed those predicted for a single two-level atom.
10 pages, 5 figures