Five-beam magneto-optical trap and optical molasses

We have operated a magneto-optical trap and optical molasses for the laser cooling of cesium atoms on the basis of a five-beam laser configuration. Fo r the magnetooptical trap two laser beams counterpropagate along the axis o f a quadrupole trap and the remaining three beams propagate in the orthogon al plane at 120 degrees to each other. The same optical configuration was u sed for the optical molasses. We have tested the efficiency in atom collect ion and the temperatures reached in both cooling processes. In comparison t o previous results on a six-beam configuration, a lower number of atoms is collected, while comparable densities are realized. The atomic temperatures have been measured through a delayed shadow-image technique, where one of the running-wave cooling beams produces an absorptive image of the atoms on a camera.