Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: We study the mechanical effects of light on an atom trapped in a harmonic potential when an atomic dipole transition is driven by a laser and it is strongly coupled to a mode of an optical resonator. We investigate the cooling dynamics in the bad cavity limit, focusing on the case in which the effective transition linewidth is smaller than the trap frequency, hence when sideband cooling could be implemented. We show that quantum correlations between the mechanical actions of laser and cavity field can lead to an enhancement of the cooling efficiency with respect to sideband cooling. Such interference effects are found when the resonator losses prevail over spontaneous decay and over the rates of the coherent processes characterizing the dynamics.
Source: Journal of Modern Optics
Authors: Stefano Zippilli, Giovanna Morigi, Wolfgang P. Schleich
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2030122646