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Single-Photon Atomic Cooling - Raizen Lab - The University of ...

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Chapter 1<br />

Introduction<br />

This chapter gives a brief introduction to the motivation and experi-<br />

mental methods developed and demonstrated in this dissertation. It begins<br />

with a brief discussion <strong>of</strong> the history <strong>of</strong> laser cooling. Next, the role laser cool-<br />

ing has played in advancing scientific knowledge is briefly presented. Finally,<br />

the method <strong>of</strong> single-photon atomic cooling, the topic <strong>of</strong> this dissertation, is<br />

presented in general terms and its advantages over established laser cooling<br />

techniques as well as its limitations are explored.<br />

1.1 A Brief History <strong>of</strong> Laser <strong>Cooling</strong><br />

Laser cooling <strong>of</strong> atomic vapors has a long and interesting history, how-<br />

ever I will only attempt to highlight some key advancements in the field to<br />

place the development <strong>of</strong> single-photon cooling in the proper context. <strong>The</strong> first<br />

experiment in this field was carried out in 1933 by Frisch when he observed<br />

the deflection <strong>of</strong> an atomic beam by resonant light emitted from a sodium<br />

lamp [1]. In this experiment the deflection <strong>of</strong> the atomic beam was due to the<br />

scattering <strong>of</strong> a single resonant photon per atom on average. <strong>The</strong> important<br />

observation was that when a resonant photon is absorbed by an atom, in ad-<br />

1

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