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
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