Knife-edge technique for laser cooling

Abstract

The transfer characteristics of an atomic beam and the effect of laser were investigated in this paper. In the application of knife-edge technique, the temperature of atoms through laser cooling was measured. Results indicate that, after atoms are emitted from an atomic oven, the longer the atoms move, the worse the distribution of the atomic beam shows, regardless the laser cooling is taken or not. Laser cooling can reduce the transverse velocity of the atomic beam to several orders of magnitude and also increase the uniformity of an atomic beam. Knife-edge technique can measure the temperature of an atomic beam through laser cooling. The measurement accuracy depends on the pixel size of the charge coupled device (CCD), which is used for the fluorescent imaging of the atomic beam. The results are very important for the future experiments of laser cooling.