Two-Dimensional Subrecoil Laser Cooling

Abstract

We report the first observation of subrecoil laser cooling in two dimensions by velocity selective coherent population trapping. We have compressed the momentum distribution of a cloud of trapped metastable helium atoms along two orthogonal axes to $\ensuremath{\delta}p=\frac{\ensuremath{\hbar}k}{4}$, where $\ensuremath{\hbar}k$ is the photon momentum. The corresponding temperature, 16 times below the single-photon recoil temperature, is 250 nK. Atoms are pumped into a nonabsorbing state exhibiting four well-resolved momentum peaks with subrecoil widths. The momentum space density in the peaks is significantly greater than that in the uncooled distribution.