Atoms in Optical Lattices: Cooling, Trapping and Squeezing Atoms with Light

Abstract

Abstract Radiative forces on atoms can be used both to cool the atoms to temperatures on the order of microkelvins and to trap them in a periodic array of microscopic potential wells formed by the interference of multiple laser beams, i.e., an optical lattice. The quantum motion of such lattice-trapped atoms can be studied by spectroscopic techniques. Atoms trapped in this way may be further manipulated so as to be cooled by adiabatic expansion, localized by sudden compression or driven into mechanical oscillations.