Damping rates of the atomic velocity in Sisyphus cooling

Abstract

We present a theoretical and experimental study of the damping process of the atomic velocity in Sisyphus cooling. The relaxation rates of the atomic kinetic temperature are determined for a 3D lin$\perp$lin optical lattice. We find that the damping rates of the atomic temperature depend linearly on the optical pumping rate, for a given depth of the potential wells. This is at variance with the behavior of the friction coefficient as calculated from the spatial diffusion coefficients within a model of Brownian motion. The origin of this different behavior is identified by distinguishing the role of the trapped and traveling atoms.

References in corpus (4)

• Brillouin propagation modes in optical lattices: interpretation in terms of nonconventional stochastic resonance
• Stochastic resonance in periodic potentials: realization in a dissipative optical lattice
• Temperature and spatial diffusion of atoms cooled in a 3D lin$\perp$lin bright optical lattice
• Rayleigh Scattering and Atomic Dynamics in Dissipative Optical Lattices

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Non-Gaussian Velocity Distributions in Optical Lattices
• Driven Ratchets for Cold Atoms
• Time dependence of laser cooling in optical lattices