Raman Cooling of Cesium below 3 nK: New Approach Inspired by Lévy Flight Statistics

Abstract

We present a new approach to optimize subrecoil Raman cooling, based on Lévy flight statistics. It shows that simple time sequences using square pulses can lead to very efficient cooling. We tested the method in a one-dimensional experiment with cesium atoms and obtained temperatures below 3 nK, less than $\frac{1}{70}$ of the single photon recoil temperature.