Cavity cooling of atoms: Within and without a cavity

TL;DR

This paper compares two optical cooling schemes for atoms, one with the atom inside a cavity and one outside, finding similar cooling efficiencies under realistic conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a transfer matrix method to evaluate cooling forces for atoms inside or outside a cavity, providing a direct comparison of their efficiencies.

Findings

Cooling forces are of comparable magnitude in both schemes.

Equilibrium temperatures are similar for the two cooling methods.

The transfer matrix approach effectively models the cooling process.

Abstract

We compare the efficiencies of two optical cooling schemes, where a single particle is either inside or outside an optical cavity, under experimentally-realisable conditions. We evaluate the cooling forces using the general solution of a transfer matrix method for a moving scatterer inside a general one-dimensional system composed of immobile optical elements. Assuming the same atomic saturation parameter, we find that the two cooling schemes provide cooling forces and equilibrium temperatures of comparable magnitude.