Raman cooling of atoms below the gravitational limit

Abstract

Raman cooling of non-zero-spin atoms in the presence of gravitational and external magnetic fields is investigated. The magnetic field is adjusted so as to compensate for the gravitational force acting on ground-state atoms. The dark state (DS) is created and supported in momentum space with additional velocity-selective two-photon transitions. The minimum allowed temperature is found to be determined only by the width of velocity selection and therefore can be much less than the gravitational limit. A complete set of analytical formulas describing cooling of a dilute atomic sample is derived. They serve as the basis for numerical simulations which are carried out in the one-dimensional (1D) case.