THE OPTIMUM FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION FOR LASER COOLING

The momentum distribution of laser cooled atoms may be identified appr oximately by a semiclassical treatment. Among different possibilities we present empirical and analytical arguments for choosing (partial de rivative/partial derivative t)omega(p, t) = -(partial derivative/parti al derivative p)(F(p)omega(p, t)) + (partial derivative/partial deriva tive p)(D(p)(partial derivative/partial derivative p)omega(p, t)) as t he optimum Fokker-Planck equation for laser cooling, where the mean fo rce and the momentum diffusion coefficients are determined from the so lutions of the internal state atomic dynamics.