We discuss theoretically the optical binding of one-dimensional chains of cold atoms shone by a transverse pump, where particles self-organize to a distance close to an optical wavelength. As the number of particles is increased, the trapping potential increases logarithmically as the contributions from all atoms add up constructively. We identify a cooperative cooling mechanism, due to the mutual exchange of photons between atoms, which can beat the spontaneous emission for chains that are long enough. Surprisingly, the cooling is optimal very close to the resonance. This peculiar cooling mechanism thus gives new insights into the cooperative physics of low-dimensional cold atom systems.
An optically thick cold atomic cloud emits a coherent flash of light in the forward direction when the phase of an incident probe field is abruptly changed. Because of cooperativity, the duration of this phenomena can be much shorter than the excited lifetime of a single atom. Repeating periodically the abrupt phase jump, we generate a train of pulses with short repetition time, high intensity contrast and high efficiency. In this regime, the emission is fully governed by cooperativity even if the cloud is dilute.
A proposal for cooling the translational motion of optically levitated magnetic nanoparticles is presented. The theoretical cooling scheme involves the sympathetic cooling of a ferromagnetic YIG nanosphere with a spin-polarized atomic gas. Particle-atom cloud coupling is mediated through the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction. When the particle and atom oscillations are small compared to their separation, the interaction potential becomes dominantly linear which allows the particle to exchange energy with the $N$ atoms. While the atoms are continuously Doppler cooled, energy is able to be remo…
The light scattered by cold atoms induces mutual optical forces between them, which can lead to bound states. In addition to the trapping potential, this light-induced interaction generates a velocity-dependent force which damps or amplifies the stretching vibrational mode of the two-atom "molecule". This velocity-dependent force acts on time scales much longer than the mode period or the dipole dynamics, determining the true stability of the bound state. We show that for two atoms, the stochastic heating due to spontaneous emission always exceeds the bounding effect, so pairs of cold atoms ca…
We propose a scheme that combines velocity-selective coherent population trapping (CPT) and Raman sideband cooling (RSC) for subrecoil cooling of optically trapped atoms outside the Lamb-Dicke regime. This scheme is based on an inverted $\mathsf{Y}$ configuration in an alkali-metal atom. It consists of a $Λ$ formed by two Raman transitions between the ground hyperfine levels and the $D$ transition, allowing RSC along two paths and formation of a CPT dark state. Using state-dependent difference in vibration frequency of the atom in a circularly polarized trap, we can tune the $Λ$ to make only t…
We report on a scheme to cool and compress trapped clouds of highly magnetic 52Cr atoms. This scheme combines sequences of gray molasses, which freeze the velocity distribution, and free evolutions in the (close to) harmonic trap, which periodically exchange the spatial and velocity degrees of freedom. Taken together, the successive gray molasses pulses cool all external degrees of freedom, which leads to an increase of the phase-space density (PSD) by a factor of about 250, allowing to reach a high final PSD of about 1.7*10^-3. These experiments are performed within an optical dipole trap, in…
We report on the realization of a stable mixture of ultracold lithium and ytterbium atoms confined in a far-off-resonance optical dipole trap. We observe sympathetic cooling of 6Li by 174Yb and extract the s-wave scattering length magnitude |a6Li-174Yb| = (13 \pm 3)a0 from the rate of inter-species thermalization. Using forced evaporative cooling of 174Yb, we achieve reduction of the 6Li temperature to below the Fermi temperature, purely through inter-species sympathetic cooling.
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules are loaded into an optical dipole trap (ODT) and subsequently laser cooled within the trap. Starting with magneto-optical trapping, we sub-Doppler cool CaF and then load $150(30)$ CaF molecules into an ODT. Enhanced loading by a factor of five is obtained when sub-Doppler cooling light and trapping light are on simultaneously. For trapped molecules, we directly observe efficient sub-Doppler cooling to a temperature of $60(5)$ $μ\text{K}$. The trapped molecular density of $8(2)\times10^7$ cm$^{-3}$ is an order of magnitude greater than in the initial sub-Dop…
We report on the realization of an ultracold (<25~muK) mixture of rubidium ({87}Rb) and metastable triplet helium ({4}He) in an optical dipole trap. Our scheme involves laser cooling in a dual-species magneto-optical trap, simultaneous MW- and RF-induced forced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap, and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap. We observe long trapping lifetimes for the doubly spin-stretched spin-state mixture and measure much shorter lifetimes for other spin-state combinations. We discuss prospects for realizing quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali-metal and…
We propose a novel cooling scheme for realising single photon sideband cooling on particles trapped in a state-dependent optical potential. We develop a master rate equation from an ab-initio model and find that in experimentally feasible conditions it is possible to drastically reduce the average occupation number of the vibrational levels by applying a frequency sweep on the cooling laser that sequentially cools all the motional states. Notably, this cooling scheme works also when a particle experiences a deeper trap in its internal ground state than in its excited state, a condition for whi…
Optically trapped dielectric objects are well suited for reaching the quantum regime of their center of mass motion in an ultra-high vacuum environment. We show that ground state cooling of an optically trapped nanosphere is achievable when starting at room temperature, by sympathetic cooling of a cold atomic gas optically coupled to the nanoparticle. Unlike cavity cooling in the resolved sideband limit, this system requires only a modest cavity finesse and it allows the cooling to be turned off, permitting subsequent observation of strongly-coupled dynamics between the atoms and sphere. Nanos…
We study laser cooling of atomic gases by collisional redistribution, a technique applicable to ultradense atomic ensembles at a pressure of a few hundred bar. Frequent collisions of an optically active atom with a buffer gas shift atoms into resonance with a far red detuned laser beam, while spontaneous decay occurs close to the unperturbed resonance frequency. In such an excitation cycle, a kinetic energy of the order of the thermal energy kT is extracted from the sample. Here we report of recent experiments investigating the cooling of a potassium-argon gas mixture, which compared to an rub…
We present a novel optical cooling scheme that relies on hyperfine dark states to enhance loading and cooling atoms inside deep optical dipole traps. We demonstrate a seven-fold increase in the number of atoms loaded in the conservative potential with strongly shifted excited states. In addition, we use the energy selective dark-state to efficiently cool the atoms trapped inside the conservative potential rapidly and without losses. Our findings open the door to optically assisted cooling of trapped atoms and molecules which lack the closed cycling transitions normally needed to achieve low te…
Forced evaporative cooling in a far-off-resonance optical dipole trap is proved to be an efficient method to produce fermionic- or bosonic-degenerated gases. However in most of the experiences, the reduction of the potential height occurs with a diminution of the collision elastic rate. Taking advantage of a long-living excited state, like in two-electron atoms, I propose a new scheme, based on an optical knife, where the forced evaporation can be driven independently of the trap confinement. In this context, the runaway regime might be achieved leading to a substantial improvement of the cool…
We consider the use of pulse-shaped broadband femtosecond lasers to optically cool rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom of molecules. Since this approach relies on cooling rotational and vibrational quanta by exciting an electronic transition, it is most easily applicable to molecules with similar ground and excited potential energy surfaces, such that the vibrational state is usually unchanged during electronic relaxation. Compared with schemes that cool rotations by exciting vibrations, this approach achieves internal cooling on the orders-of- magnitude faster electronic decay times…
We investigate the transient coherent transmission of light through an optically thick cold stron-tium gas. We observe a coherent superflash just after an abrupt probe extinction, with peak intensity more than three times the incident one. We show that this coherent superflash is a direct signature of the cooperative forward emission of the atoms. By engineering fast transient phenomena on the incident field, we give a clear and simple picture of the physical mechanisms at play.
A hybrid ion-neutral trap provides an ideal system to study collisional dynamics between ions and neutrals. This system provides a general cooling method that can be applied to optically inaccessible species and can also potentially cool internal degrees of freedom. The long range polarization potentials ($V\propto-α/r^4$) between ions and neutrals result in large scattering cross sections at cold temperatures, making the hybrid trap a favorable system for efficient sympathetic cooling of ions by collisions with neutral atoms. We present experimental evidence of sympathetic cooling in a hybrid…
We investigate cooling mechanisms in magneto-optically and magnetically trapped erbium. We find efficient sub-Doppler cooling in our trap, which can persist even in large magnetic fields due to the near degeneracy of two Lande g factors. Furthermore, a continuously loaded magnetic trap is demonstrated where we observe temperatures below 25 microkelvin. These favorable cooling and trapping properties suggest a number of scientific possibilities for rare-earth atomic physics, including narrow linewidth laser cooling and spectroscopy, unique collision studies, and degenerate bosonic and fermionic…
We propose and demonstrate a novel laser cooling mechanism applicable to particles with narrow-linewidth optical transitions. By sweeping the frequency of counter-propagating laser beams in a sawtooth manner, we cause adiabatic transfer back and forth between the ground state and a long-lived optically excited state. The time-ordering of these adiabatic transfers is determined by Doppler shifts, which ensures that the associated photon recoils are in the opposite direction to the particle's motion. This ultimately leads to a robust cooling mechanism capable of exerting large forces via a weak …
First laser cooling and trapping of the heavy alkaline earth element barium has been achieved based on the strong 6s$^2$ $^1$S$_0$ - 6s6p $^1$P$_1$ transition for the main cooling. Due to the large branching into metastable D-states several additional laser driven transitions are required to provide a closed cooling cycle. A total efficiency of $0.4(1) \cdot 10^{-2}$ for slowing a thermal atomic beam and capturing atoms into a magneto optical trap was obtained. Trapping lifetimes of more than 1.5 s were observed. This lifetime is shortened at high laser intensities by photo ionization losses. …
We simultaneously trap ultracold lithium and cesium atoms in an optical dipole trap formed by the focus of a CO$_2$ laser and study the exchange of thermal energy between the gases. The cesium gas, which is optically cooled to $20 μ$K, efficiently decreases the temperature of the lithium gas through sympathetic cooling. The measured cross section for thermalizing $^{133}$Cs-$^7$Li collisions is $8 \times 10^{-12}$ cm$^2$, for both species in their lowest hyperfine ground state. Besides thermalization, we observe evaporation of lithium purely through elastic cesium-lithium collisions (sympathet…
We demonstrate laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of europium. The atoms are optically pumped to a metastable state and then loaded from an atomic-beam source via conventional Zeeman slowing and magneto-optical trapping techniques using a $J=13/2\leftrightarrow J=15/2$ quasi-cyclic transition. The trapped populations contained up to $1\times 10^7$ atoms, and a two-body loss rate is estimated as $1\times10^{-10}\,\mathrm{cm^3/s}$ from the non-exponential loss of atoms at high densities. We also observed leakage out of the quasi-cyclic transition to the two metastable states with $J=9/2$…
We have experimentally produced rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate in an optically-plugged magnetic quadrupole (OPQ) trap. A far blue-detuned focused laser beam with a wavelength of 532 nm is plugged in the center of the magnetic quadrupole trap to increase the number of trapped atoms and suppress the heating. A radio frequency (RF) evaporative cooling in the magneto-optical hybrid trap is applied to decrease the atom temperature into degeneracy. The atom number of the condensate is $1.2(0.4)\times10^5$ and the temperature is below 100 nK. We have also studied characteristic behaviors of the co…
Continuous-wave output at 229 nm for the application of laser cooling of Cd atoms was generated by the 4th harmonic using two successive second harmonic generation stages. Employing a single-frequency optically pumped semiconductor laser as a fundamental source, 0.56 W of output at 229 nm was observed with a 10-mm long, Brewster-cut BBO crystal in an external cavity with 1.62 W of 458 nm input. Conversion efficiency from 458 nm to 229 nm was more than 34%. By applying a tapered amplifier as a fundamental source, we demonstrated magneto-optical trapping of all stable Cd isotopes including isoto…
By utilizing strong optical resonant interactions in arrays of atoms with electric dipole transitions, we show how to synthesize collective optical responses that correspond to those formed by arrays of magnetic dipoles and other multipoles. Optically active magnetism with the strength comparable with that of electric dipole transitions is achieved in collective excitation eigenmodes of the array. By controlling the atomic level shifts, an array of spectrally overlapping, crossed electric and magnetic dipoles can be excited, providing a physical realization of a nearly-reflectionless quantum H…
Controlling the internal degrees of freedom is a key challenge for applications of cold and ultracold molecules. Here, we demonstrate rotational-state cooling of trapped methyl fluoride molecules (CH3F) by optically pumping the population of 16 M-sublevels in the rotational states J=3,4,5, and 6 into a single level. By combining rotational-state cooling with motional cooling, we increase the relative number of molecules in the state J=4, K=3, M=4 from a few percent to over 70%, thereby generating a translationally cold (~30mK) and nearly pure state ensemble of about 10^6 molecules. Our scheme …
A mixed system of cooled and trapped, ions and atoms, paves the way for ion assisted cold chemistry and novel many body studies. Due to the different individual trapping mechanisms, trapped atoms are significantly colder than trapped ions, therefore in the combined system, the strong binary ion$-$atom interaction results in heat flow from ions to atoms. Conversely, trapped ions can also get collisionally heated by the cold atoms, making the resulting equilibrium between ions and atoms intriguing. Here we experimentally demonstrate, Rubidium ions (Rb$^+$) cool in contact with magneto-optically …
We demonstrate an inertia sensitive atom interferometer optically guided inside a 22-cm-long negative curvature hollow-core photonic crystal fiber with an interferometer time of 20 ms. The result prolongs the previous fiber guided atom interferometer time by three orders of magnitude. The improvement arises from the realization of in-fiber Λ-enhanced gray molasses and delta-kick cooling to cool atoms from 32 μK to below 1 μK in 4 ms. The in-fiber cooling overcomes the inevitable heating during the atom loading process and allows a shallow guiding optical potential to minimize decoherence. Our …
We demonstrate phase sensitivity in a horizontally guided, acceleration-sensitive atom interferometer with a momentum separation of 80hk between its arms. A fringe visibility of 7% is observed. Our coherent pulse sequence accelerates the cold cloud in an optical waveguide, an inherently scalable route to large momentum separation and high sensitivity. We maintain coherence at high momentum separation due to both the transverse confinement provided by the guide, and our use of optical delta-kick cooling on our cold-atom cloud. We also construct a horizontal interferometric gradiometer to measur…
We have used the narrow $2S_{1/2} \rightarrow 3P_{3/2}$ transition in the ultraviolet (uv) to laser cool and magneto-optically trap (MOT) $^6$Li atoms. Laser cooling of lithium is usually performed on the $2S_{1/2} \rightarrow 2P_{3/2}$ (D2) transition, and temperatures of $\sim$300 $μ$K are typically achieved. The linewidth of the uv transition is seven times narrower than the D2 line, resulting in lower laser cooling temperatures. We demonstrate that a MOT operating on the uv transition reaches temperatures as low as 59 $μ$K. Furthermore, we find that the light shift of the uv transition in …
In recent years, cold atoms could prove their scientific impact not only on ground but in microgravity environments such as the drop tower in Bremen, sounding rockets and parabolic flights. We investigate the preparation of cold atoms in an optical dipole trap, with an emphasis on evaporative cooling under microgravity. Up to $ 1\times10^{6} $ rubidium-87 atoms were optically trapped from a temporarily dark magneto optical trap during free fall in the droptower in Bremen. The efficiency of evaporation is determined to be equal with and without the effect of gravity. This is confirmed using num…
