Laser cooling with a single laser beam and a planar diffractor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel planar diffraction grating setup that transforms a single laser beam into a four-beam magneto-optical trap, enabling efficient laser cooling of rubidium atoms with potential for microfabrication.

Contribution

It presents a new flat pyramid diffractor design for creating a magneto-optical trap from a single laser beam, simplifying the setup and facilitating microfabrication.

Findings

Successfully trapped 87Rb atoms using the planar diffractor.

Achieved sub-Doppler cooling down to 30 microKelvin.

Demonstrated the feasibility of the flat pyramid geometry for laser cooling.

Abstract

A planar triplet of diffraction gratings is used to transform a single laser beam into a four-beam tetrahedral magneto-optical trap. This `flat' pyramid diffractor geometry is ideal for future microfabrication. We demonstrate the technique by trapping and subsequently sub-Doppler cooling 87Rb atoms to 30microKelvin.