Efficient cooling of high-angular-momentum atoms

Abstract

We propose a highly efficient and fast method of translational cooling for high-angular-momentum atoms. Optical pumping and stimulated transitions, combined with magnetic forces, can be used to compress phase-space density, and the efficiency of each compression step increases with the angular momentum. Entropy is removed by spontaneously emitted photons, and particle number is conserved. This method may be an attractive alternative to evaporative cooling of atoms and possibly molecules in order to produce quantum degenerate gases.