Two-photon Doppler cooling of a three-level ladder system with an intermediate metastable level

Caroline Champenois (1) , Gaetan Hagel (1) , Martina Knoop (1) , Marie Houssin (1) , Cedric Zumsteg (1) , Fernande Vedel (1) , Michael Drewsen (2)

1 PIIM - Physique des interactions ioniques et moléculaires
2 QUANTOP - Danish National Research Foundation Center for Quantum Optics

Doppler laser cooling of a three-level ladder system using two near-resonant laser fields is analyzed in the case of the intermediate level being metastable while the upper level is short-lived. Analytical as well as numerical results for e.g. obtainable scattering rates and achievable temperatures are presented and compared with results of standard two-level single-photon Doppler laser cooling. These results are relevant to recent experimental Doppler laser cooling investigations addressing intercombination lines in alkali-earth metal atoms and quadrupole transitions in alkali-earth metal ions.

Mots clés: Doppler cooling; trapped ions; ladder system; forbidden transition

Domaines: Physique Quantique [quant-ph]

Caroline Champenois, Gaetan Hagel, Martina Knoop, Marie Houssin, Cedric Zumsteg, et al.. Two-photon Doppler cooling of a three-level ladder system with an intermediate metastable level. 2007. ⟨hal-00182596v1⟩