One-dimensional laser cooling with linearly polarized fields

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Abstract
We present a calculation of one-dimensional sub-Doppler cooling of neutral atoms, in which the atomic center-of-mass motion is quantized. The cooling field consists of a pair of counterpropagating, linearly polarized laser beams, with their polarizaton vectors at an angle θ with respect to each other. The steady-state atomic density matrix is analyzed as a function of θ. It is shown that, depending on the internal atomic level scheme, the equilibrium population of the quantized ground state of atomic center-of-mass motion can either increase or decrease significantly when θ is reduced from π/2. These effects are interpreted based on the spatial localization of atoms in the light-induced potential wells.