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Radiative collisional heating at the Doppler limit for laser-cooled magnesium atoms

J. Piilo·E. Lundh·K. -A. Suominen
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Abstract

We report Monte Carlo wave function simulation results on cold collisions between magnesium atoms in a strong red-detuned laser field. This is the normal situation e.g. in magneto-optical traps (MOT). The Doppler limit heating rate due to radiative collisions is calculated for Mg-24 atoms in a magneto-optical trap based on the singlet S_0 - singlet P_1 atomic laser cooling transition. We find that radiative heating does not seem to affect the Doppler limit in this case. We also describe a channelling mechanism due to the missing Q branch in the excitation scheme, which could lead to a suppression of inelastic collisions, and find that this mechanism is not present in our simulation results due to the multistate character of the excitation process.

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J. Piilo, E. Lundh, K. -A. Suominen. 2004-05-10. Radiative collisional heating at the Doppler limit for laser-cooled magnesium atoms. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.70.013410

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