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

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and our current implementation in 87 Rb, but the enduring contribution <strong>of</strong> this<br />

paper was that it considered such a device in the context <strong>of</strong> atomic cooling.<br />

Consider for the moment, without an explicit description <strong>of</strong> its con-<br />

struction, a one-way barrier for neutral atoms. Such a “one-way-wall” allows<br />

atoms to pass through it from one direction, but reflects them when they<br />

come from the opposite direction, as shown in Fig. 1.3. <strong>The</strong> pertinent ques-<br />

<br />

Figure 1.3: Depiction <strong>of</strong> a hypothetical one-way-wall for neutral atoms. While<br />

this wall allows atoms to transmit when traveling from left to right, it reflects<br />

atoms traveling from right to left.<br />

tion becomes if such a one-way-wall can be used to cool an atomic ensemble. A<br />

simple theoretical arrangement utilizing a one-way-wall which clearly indicated<br />

that cooling is possible is given in Fig. 1.4. <strong>The</strong>re a one-way-wall has been<br />

placed in a 1-D hard walled box containing an ensemble <strong>of</strong> thermal atoms. As<br />

the atoms explore the box they accumulate on one side <strong>of</strong> the one-way-wall.<br />

<strong>The</strong> atoms become confined to a small portion <strong>of</strong> the box <strong>of</strong> length l2, which<br />

they originally filled, thus the ensemble <strong>of</strong> atoms has had its spatial spread<br />

σx reduced. If we assume that no corresponding increase in the momentum<br />

10

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