corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 48 » Issue 9
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 596–599 (1982)

Laser Deceleration of an Atomic Beam

Download: PDF (256 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

William D. Phillips and Harold Metcalf*
Electrical Measurements and Standards Division Center for Absolute Physical Quantities, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C. 20234

Received 23 December 1981; published in the issue dated 1 March 1982

See accompanying Physics Focus

Deceleration and velocity bunching of Na atoms in an atomic beam have been observed. The deceleration, caused by absorption of counterpropagating resonant laser light, amounts to 40% of the initial thermal velocity, corresponding to about 15 000 absorptions. Atoms were kept in resonance with the laser by using a spatially varying magnetic field to provide a changing Zeeman shift to compensate for the changing Doppler shift as the atoms decelerated.

© 1982 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.596
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.596
PACS:
32.90.+a, 32.30.Bv

*Permanent address: Physics Department, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794.

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >