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Laser cooling for quantum gases

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 1296–1304 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Laser cooling exploits the physics of light scattering to cool atomic and molecular gases to close to absolute zero. It is the crucial initial step for essentially all atomic gas experiments in which Bose–Einstein condensation and, more generally, quantum degeneracy is reached. The ongoing development of laser-cooling methods has allowed more elements to be brought to quantum degeneracy, with each additional atomic species offering its own experimental opportunities. Improved methods are opening new avenues, for example, reaching Bose–Einstein condensation purely through laser cooling as well as the realization of continuous Bose–Einstein condensation. Here we review these recent innovations in laser cooling and provide an outlook on methods that may enable new ways of creating quantum gases.

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Fig. 1: Typical experimental set-ups for ultracold gas creation.
Fig. 2: Partial electronic term schemes of elements cooled to quantum degeneracy.
Fig. 3: Raman sideband cooling of Cs.
Fig. 4: Schemes of three experiments achieving BEC by laser cooling.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Spreeuw, B. van Linden van den Heuvell and S. Bennetts for helpful comments on the manuscript. We are grateful for funding from the NWO through Vici grant no. 680-47-619 and grant no. 680.92.18.05 (QuSim 2.0 programme) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 820404 (iqClock project) and no. 860579 (MoSaiQC project).

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  1. Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Florian Schreck & Klaasjan van Druten

  2. QuSoft, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Florian Schreck

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Schreck, F., Druten, K.v. Laser cooling for quantum gases. Nat. Phys. 17, 1296–1304 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01379-w

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