Quantum interference-enhanced deep sub-Doppler cooling of 39 K atoms in gray molasses

Abstract

We report enhanced sub-Doppler cooling of the bosonic atoms of $^{39}$K facilitated by formation of dark states tuned for the Raman resonance in the $\Lambda-$configuration near the D1 transition. Temperature of about 12 $\mu$K is achieved in the two stage D2-D1 molasses and spans a very large parameter region where quantum interference persists robustly. We also present results on enhanced radiation heating with sub-natural linewidth (0.07$\Gamma$) and signature Fano like profile of a coherently driven 3-level atomic system. The Optical Bloch Equations relevant for the three-level atom in bichromatic light field is solved with the method of continued fractions to show that cooling occurs only for a small velocity class of atoms, emphasizing the need for pre-cooling in D2 molasses stage.