ELEMENTARY SISYPHUS PROCESS CLOSE TO A DIELECTRIC SURFACE

Citation
P. Desbiolles et al., ELEMENTARY SISYPHUS PROCESS CLOSE TO A DIELECTRIC SURFACE, Physical review. A, 54(5), 1996, pp. 4292-4298
Citations number
32
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
ISSN journal
10502947
Volume
54
Issue
5
Year of publication
1996
Pages
4292 - 4298
Database
ISI
SICI code
1050-2947(1996)54:5<4292:ESPCTA>2.0.ZU;2-N
Abstract
We investigate both theoretically and experimentally an elementary Sis yphus process occurring during the reflection of an atom onto a laser evanescent wave propagating at the surface of a dielectric prism. Cesi um atoms bouncing at normal incidence may undergo a spontaneous Raman transition between their two hyperfine levers; this leads to an effici ent cooling since those levels are light shifted by a different amount by the laser-atom interaction thanks to the large hyperfine splitting . We compare the measured final energy distributions after the bounce with Monte Carlo simulations. A quantitative agreement is obtained whe n the van der Waals interaction between the cesium atoms and the diele ctric prism is taken into account.