LOADING ATOMS IN A BI-DIMENSIONAL LIGHT TRAP

We investigate theoretically a trap formed by two laser evanescent wav es propagating at the surface of a dielectric prism, which confine the atoms in a Morse potential along the direction perpendicular to the p rism. We consider a loading process based on the Sisyphus effect, in w hich a single spontaneous Raman transition is involved. We show that i t is possible to achieve in this way an efficient loading of the groun d state of the Morse potential, and to get thus a quasi-bi-dimensional atomic gas at the surface of the dielectric.