Effect of diffusion on laser cooling of atoms with long-range collisions

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Abstract
An extension to a previous model [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 8, 1594 (1991)], which described the collision between two atoms in a cooling laser field, is made, which allows diffusive effects to be analyzed. A method similar to that used in Monte Carlo studies is developed, except that the diffusion is now determined exactly at all times. This approach relies directly on making a local classical path approximation for the atoms' trajectories. For the simple case of a single two-level atom in the cooling field, the energy of the atom reaches equilibrium at the Doppler limit, as one would expect. In the full collisional situation we make the assumption that each atom undergoes a series of binary collisions. For sufficiently high atomic densities these collisions provide a limit on the lowest temperature that may be achieved by the cooling process.

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