https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170247
Intensity and detuning dependence of fine structure changing collisions in a 85Rb magneto-optical trap
Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento
de Física e Ciência dos Materiais,
Caixa Postal 369, 13560-970 São Carlos, SP Brazil
Corresponding author: a marcassa@if.sc.usp.br
Received:
4
May
2000
Revised:
11
October
2000
Published online: 15 March 2001
This paper reports on an experimental investigation of fine
structure changing collisions between cold and trapped atoms. Our previous work [Eur. Phys. J. D 7, 317 (1999)] reported on our assessment of the contribution of FSC to the total
trap loss using photoionization by a cw laser to detect the atomic fragments
in the
state originating from these collisions. The
Doppler effect plays an important role in the detection scheme and had a
limiting effect on our previous experiment. To overcome this problem, we
have used a pulsed laser in this work. The signal/noise ratio was improved,
allowing us to measure the intensity and frequency dependence of the loss
rate due to FSC. A comparison of our results with the semiclassic
Gallagher-Pritchard model revealed some disagreements, for which we propose
several arguments to attempt to explain these discrepancies. We believe that
these results should stimulate theoretical work on this field.
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 33.80.Ps – Optical cooling of molecules; trapping / 34.50.Rk – Laser-modified scattering and reactions
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001