Trapping of Neutral Sodium Atoms with Radiation Pressure

Abstract

We report the confinement and cooling of an optically dense cloud of neutral sodium atoms by radiation pressure. The trapping and damping forces were provided by three retroreflected laser beams propagating along orthogonal axes, with a weak magnetic field used to distinguish between the beams. We have trapped as many as 107 atoms for 2 min at densities exceeding 1011 atoms cm-3. The trap was 0.4 K deep and the atoms, once trapped, were cooled to less than a millikelvin and compacted into a region less than 0.5 mm in diameter. © 1987 The American Physical Society.