Gray Molasses on Rubidium-87 atoms

Abstract

This project presents an experimental study on the implementation of gray molasses cooling in an ultracold 87Rb experiment. Gray molasses, a sub-Doppler cooling technique, effectively increases the phase-space density of cold trapped atoms by utilizing dark and bright states. We present a theoretical view of the technique, as well as a description of the experimental setup and the modifications required for implementing the technique on 87Rb. The results reveal temperatures as low as 8, 64µK and a phase-space density of 1, 97 · 10−8, in a sample of 1, 3 · 106 atoms.