Laser Cooling with Adiabatic Transfer on a Raman Transition

Abstract

A novel laser cooling mechanism was recently demonstrated using a narrow-linewidth optical transition. Counter-propagating laser beams are swept in frequency to cause adiabatic transfer between a ground state and excited state, and Doppler shifts provide time-ordering that ensures the associated photon recoils oppose the particle's motion. We now expand this technique to $^{87}$Rb, which has no narrow-linewidth optical transition, by using artificially-narrow two-photon Raman transitions. The cooling mechanism is capable of exerting large forces to compress the phase-space of the atomic ensemble without relying on spontaneous emission, providing further support for its potential use in cooling molecules or other particles that lack closed cycling transitions. Because the dynamics of the adiabatic transfer are crucial for assessing the feasibility of Raman SWAP cooling, we also develop a generic model for Raman Landau-Zener transitions in the presence of free-space scattering.