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Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 48–51 (1985)

Three-dimensional viscous confinement and cooling of atoms by resonance radiation pressure

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Steven Chu, L. Hollberg, J. E. Bjorkholm, Alex Cable, and A. Ashkin
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey 07733

Received 25 April 1985; published in the issue dated 1 July 1985

We report the viscous confinement and cooling of neutral sodium atoms in three dimensions via the radiation pressure of counterpropagating laser beams. These atoms have a density of about ∼106 cm-3 and a temperature of ∼240 μK corresponding to a rms velocity of ∼60 cm/sec. This temperature is approximately the quantum limit for this atomic transition. The decay time for half the atoms to escape a ∼0.2cm3 confinement volume is ∼0.1 sec.

© 1985 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.48
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.48
PACS:
32.80.Pj