Manipulatingatomswithphotons创新.PDFVIP

Manipulating atoms with photons* Claude N. Cohen-Tannoudji ` † ´ College de France et Laboratoire Kastler Brossel de l’Ecole Normale Superieure, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France [S0034-6861(98)01103-9] Electromagnetic interactions play a central role in low Selective Coherent Population Trapping,’’ which were energy physics. They are responsible for the cohesion of discovered at the end of the 80s (for a historical survey atoms and molecules and they are at the origin of the of these developments, see for example Cohen- emission and absorption of light by such systems. This Tannoudji and Phillips, 1990). These mechanisms have light is not only a source of information on the structure allowed laser cooling to overcome important fundamen- of atoms. It can also be used to act on atoms, to manipu- tal limits, such as the Doppler limit and the single pho- late them, to control their various degrees of freedom. ton recoil limit, and to reach the microkelvin, and even With the development of laser sources, this research the nanokelvin range. We devote a large part of this field has considerably expanded during the last few paper (Sections II and III) to the discussion of these years. Methods have been developed to trap atoms and mechanisms and to the description of a few applications to cool them to very low temperatures. This has opened investigated by our group in Paris (Section IV). There is the way to a wealth of new investigations and applica- a certain continuity between these recent developments tions.