Method for increasing the velocity acceptance of stimulated laser cooling

Abstract

A new method is proposed for laser cooling atoms with Doppler shifts an order of magnitude larger than the homogeneous linewidth of the atomic transition. Two traveling waves cross at an oblique angle and form long-wavelength standing waves. The resulting broadband stimulated cooling forces are predicted to stop 0.1% of the flux of a 500-K atomic sodium beam in a distance of 300 μm and a time of a few microseconds. This is more than 100 times faster than current methods. © 1991 Optical Society of America.