Optimized temperature measurement with time-of-flight method

Abstract

Driven by resonance probe light background Rubidium gas can emit fluorescence, which interacts with the falling atomic cloud in the temperature measurement with the time-of-flight (TOF) method and influence the experimental results. The dependencies of the acceleration and the temperature of the atomic cloud on the detuning of the probe beams were studied. We propose that the deviation of the acceleration from the gravity acceleration can be taken as a criterion of the accuracy of the temperature measurement using TOF method. Moreover, using the principle of the radiation force on the cold atomic cloud, one may measure the considerably weak intensity of the fluorescence.