To create the dark state, researchers first trap and cool helium atoms using a combination of laser beams and magnetic fields. Then, two laser beams traveling in opposite directions put each atom into a combination or "superposition" of two low-energy states that interfere with each other so as to prevent the atoms from absorbing or emitting laser light. This is important since a helium atom absorbing or emitting a single photon recoils by 9.2 cm/second, corresponding to a temperature of 4 microkelvins. Oblivious to photons, atoms in dark states can have temperatures well below this "single photon recoil limit." To determine these "subrecoil" temperatures more precisely, Cohen-Tannoudji's group probes the wavelike properties in the group of atoms. Each dark-state atom can be thought of as a superposition of two "wavepackets," corresponding to the two low-energy states which interfere to prevent light absorption.
Associated with the two wavepackets are two equal and opposite momentum states characterizing the movement of the atom as a whole; in effect the atom is moving in two opposite directions at the same time. As long as the dark state lasers are on, these two wavepackets are constantly superimposed. But when the researchers turn off the lasers in their experiment, the two wavepackets fly apart. A subsequent laser pulse applied after a certain time measures the various degrees of overlap in the wavepacket pairs that make up the cloud of atoms, allowing the researchers to measure the momentum (and therefore velocity) distribution of the atoms and thereby the temperature as well.
Applying this technique to subrecoil helium atoms, the researchers have measured a temperature (at least in the one dimension probed by their laser) of 5 nanokelvins, 1/800 of the recoil limit. This is the lowest fraction of the recoil temperature ever measured for an atom; the lowest absolute temperature, 3 nanokelvins for much heavier cesium atoms, was measured by the same group in 1995.
[Item courtesy of Philip F. Schewe and Ben Stein of AIP Public Information.]
©1995 - 2024, AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY
APS encourages the redistribution of the materials included in this newspaper provided that attribution to the source is noted and the materials are not truncated or changed.