Laser Cooling by Spontaneous Anti-Stokes Scattering

Abstract

Cooling of a three-level system resulting from anti-Stokes scattering of electromagnetic radiation has been observed for the first time. A C${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ laser was used to lower the temperature of samples of C${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ and C${\mathrm{O}}_{2}$-Xe mixtures. Satisfactory agreement between theory and experiment was found. The technique's ability to deliver an extremely fast cooling pulse should find application in the study of nucleation dynamics.