Cooling by resonator-induced coherent scattering of radiation

摘要

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for cooling multilevel entities such as atoms, ions or molecules as well as entities with no apparent internal structure. Cooling is achieved by coherent scattering, where the frequency of the emitted radiation exceeds the frequency of the illumination radiation. Such coherent scattering is achieved by placing the entities in a resonator containing in which the cavity length and mirror coating are selected to support a resonant radiation. The entities are illuminated with an illumination radiation whose energy is lower than that of the resonant radiation supported by the resonator by a certain detuning energy selected such that coherent scattering of resonant radiation from the entities at a higher frequency than that of the illumination radiation is promoted by the resonator. As a result of the coherent scattering energy is carried away from the entities and they are cooled.