White light transverse cooling of a helium beam

We report a study of transverse laser cooling on a metastable helium beam u sing spectrally broadened diode lasers ("white light") to increase its flux . For this purpose, beam profile and atomic flux versus laser power and oth er parameters have been characterized. We have performed experiments to com pare this technique with other transverse cooling methods using monochromat ic light. Best results are obtained with a "ziz-zag" configuration using "w hite light".