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Observation of Atoms Laser Cooled below the Doppler Limit

Paul D. Lett, Richard N. Watts, Christoph I. Westbrook, William D. Phillips, Phillip L. Gould, and Harold J. Metcalf
Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 169 – Published 11 July 1988
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An article within the collection: The Physical Review Journals Celebrate The International Year of Light and the Letters from the Past - A PRL Retrospective
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Abstract

We have measured the temperature of a gas of sodium atoms released from "optical molasses" to be as low as 43±20 μK. Surprisingly, this strongly violates the generally accepted theory of Doppler cooling which predicts a limit of 240 μK. To determine the temperature we used several complementary measurements of the ballistic motion of atoms released from the molasses.

  • Received 18 April 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.169

©1988 American Physical Society

Collections

This article appears in the following collections:

The Physical Review Journals Celebrate The International Year of Light

The editors of the Physical Review journals revisit papers that represent important breakthroughs in the field of optics.

Letters from the Past - A PRL Retrospective

2008 marked PRL’s 50th anniversary. As part of the celebrations a collection of milestone Letters was started. The collection contains Letters that have made long-lived contributions to physics, either by announcing significant discoveries, or by initiating new areas of research.

Authors & Affiliations

Paul D. Lett, Richard N. Watts, Christoph I. Westbrook, and William D. Phillips

  • Electricity Division, National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899

Phillip L. Gould

  • Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06268

Harold J. Metcalf

  • Department of Physics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794

See Also

Landmarks: Laser Cooling of Atoms

Jason Socrates Bardi
Phys. Rev. Focus 21, 11 (2008)

References

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Issue

Vol. 61, Iss. 2 — 11 July 1988

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