Abstract
We investigate the sub-Doppler laser cooling of bosonic potassium isotopes, whose small hyperfine splitting has so far prevented cooling below the Doppler temperature. We find instead that the combination of a dark optical molasses scheme that naturally arises in this kind of system and an adiabatic ramping of the laser parameters allows us to reach sub-Doppler temperatures for small laser detunings. We demonstrate temperatures as low as K and K in high-density samples of the two isotopes K and K, respectively. Our findings should find application to other atomic systems.
1 More- Received 12 July 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.84.043432
©2011 American Physical Society