Cooling and Localization Dynamics in Optical Lattices
- 27 January 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 78 (4), 630-633
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.78.630
Abstract
Using Bragg scattering as a sensitive probe, we study how atoms are cooled and localized after the sudden turn-on of 1D and 3D optical lattices. We measure the time evolution of the mean-square position spread of the atoms in the lattice potential wells, a quantity proportional to their effective temperature. The rate of exponential approach to equilibrium is proportional to the photon scattering rate and about 6 times faster in 1D than in 3D. This simple proportionality was unexpected, based on the usual model of Sisyphus cooling, but is in agreement with our 1D Monte Carlo simulations.Keywords
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