Bichromatic force on helium - art. no. 025406

We have observed the bichromatic force on metastable He using fiber amplifi ers to produce the high power of light needed at lambda = 1.083 mum. We hav e done deflection experiments to confirm that the very large magnitude of t he force scales to He, and preliminary deceleration experiments for eventua l trap loading. Our measurements support earlier experiments in Rb. Helium is ideally suited for this kind of beam slowing because its slowing length with the usual radiative force is more than a factor of 100 larger than wit h the bichromatic force. Thus, loading a MOT will be much more effective be cause of the much larger angular capture range associated with the shorter distance.