ALL-OPTICAL LOCAL COOLING AND TRAPPING IN 3D

We propose a scheme for three-dimensional trapping and cooling of atom s in a bichromatic standing wave formed by two different longitudinal modes of an optical cavity. The atoms are cooled through an efficient Sisyphus mechanism and trapped at those anti-nodes (maxima) of the str onger field where the second weaker field has a node, this leading to a large effective atom-field coupling. Contrary to the case of a singl e strong standing wave, the final width of the momentum distribution i s considerably less than the depth of the optical potential implying l ong storage times. The scheme offers the possibility of capturing atom s out of the background and achieving high local densities modulated w ith the beat frequency of the two involved modes. The results from a t hree-dimensional semi-classical calculation are confirmed by a full QM CWF simulation as well as by a quantum rate equation model in the one- dimensional case in the proper limits.