Year 12 Physics Extended Response

Task Physics for Our Future: Laser

Cooling
Introduction
As technology progresses further and further, mankind can reap the benefits of
innovation in various scientific areas. Physics in particular, has contributed
greatly to scientific advancement, and no doubt will bring even further
advancements. New areas of investigation in physics can bring technologies that
could even help us with everyday activities within a few decades. Laser cooling,
for example, was first demonstrated in 1978, but can now be used in various
applications to improve modern technology.

Explanation
Laser cooling, as the name suggests, is used to cool down atoms. If a fired
photon and an atom are in phase, the atom will absorb it, causing it to lose
momentum as the directions of motion oppose each other, and then emit the
photon in a random direction, giving the atom a bump in the opposite (random)
direction. This process eventually results in the atoms kinetic energy being
reduced to almost 0, which means that their temperature is almost absolute 0.
The Nobel Prize in Physics of 1997 was awarded to Stephen Chu, Claude CohenTannoudji and William Phillips for achieving extremely low temperatures through
the construction of several forms of atom traps involving laser cooling
(Foundation, 1997).

Simulations
Figures 1 and 2 are from a simulation used in an explanation of Bose-Einstein
Condensates (Colorado, Laser Cooling, 2011) that show how the photons emitted
from the laser (red arrow pointing towards atom), after being absorbed by the
atom, are then emitted in a random direction (red arrow pointing away from
atom). This pushes the atom in the opposite direction to the emission (grey
arrow).

Figure 1 - Photon paths and atom bump direction - Figure 2

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 1

Figure 3 Photon path and atom in ground state

Figure 4 Atom with a photon absorbed

Figures 3 and 4 are taken from a PHET Simulation (Colorado, Lasers, 2011) that
also displays light-matter interactions. Figure 3 shows the path that the photon
takes before and after absorption, while Figure 4 shows an atom while the photon
is absorbed. The atom has a 2 on it to indicate that it is at a higher energy level
than the atom in Figure 3. Figure 5 displays an energy level diagram of the atom
in Figure 4. It shows that after absorbing the photon, it jumps to a higher energy
state, and that after the emission, it will return back to its original, or ground,
state.

Figure 5 Energy level diagram of atom in Figure 4

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 2

Data Analyses Research Articles

Experiment 1
Figure 1 is a graph taken from an experiment posted on ScienceDirect.com, an
online scientific database offering various journal articles and practical
experiment write-ups. This experiment from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
involved the use of a single-beam mini magneto-optical trap to cool down and
trap Rubidium atoms.

Figure 1 Number of atoms vs. Laser detuning

For atoms to absorb and emit the photons, they need to be in phase. The
Doppler Effect causes the frequency of the photons to be higher when they reach
the atom than when they are emitted from the light source, so the laser needs to
be set to a lower frequency than that of the atom (detuned). Do note that the
negative sign preceding all the detuning values indicate a reduction in frequency
(increase in detuning), so the lowest frequency/greatest detuning is on the far
left, and the highest frequency/least detuning is on the far right.
The graph above shows how much detuning the photons need to trap various
numbers of Rubidium atoms. As the points show, a parabola would be the best fit
for the relation between the number of atoms and the amount of detuning, with
a maximum turning point at approximately -13.7 MHz (on the x axis) and 11.0 (
0.5) x 106 atoms (on the y axis) (Xu, 2008). This maximum turning point
indicates the optimum amount of detuning needed in this experiment to trap the
greatest number of atoms. However, as the aim of the experiment is to trap as
few atoms as possible (but not 0), it shows that approximately -6.2 MHz of
detuning would create an atom cloud of approximately 0.2 x 10 6 atoms, as it is
the closest point on the graph to a temperature of 0 atoms.

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 3

Experiment 2
Table 1 and Figure 2 are taken from an article posted on IOPScience.com, an
online science research distributor that displays information in traditional journal
article format. This experiment from the Physics Department of Cork University
College in Cork, Ireland, investigates sub-Doppler temperature measurements of

laser cooled Rubidium atoms with a magneto-optical trap.

Table 1 Laser detuning, frequency, atom cloud radius and

temperature

Figure 2 Temperature vs.

Table 1 and Figure 2 both show an exponential function as the relationship

between temperature and laser detuning (Russell, 2011). Both show that
increasing the detuning decreases the temperature, implying inverse
proportionality, at least before the minimum point is reached. Naturally, the
number of atoms (related and proportional to atom cloud radius) and the

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 4

temperature are directly proportional, as more mass creates more kinetic energy.
This can be seen in Table 1. As the detuning increases, fewer atoms are trapped
and the cloud radius becomes smaller. This implies inverse proportionality
between the detuning and the number of atoms. This most likely represents the
left half of the parabola in Figure 1 (both these figures can be easily compared as
both experiments use the same Rubidium atoms). As shown in Figure 1, pushing
the detuning to the extremes (really high or really low) results with no atoms
being trapped at all, as none would end up absorbing photons. This would result
in a temperature of 0, so Figure 2, rather than curving up again, would actually
be more likely to slowly continue down until the temperature reaches 0 because
no atoms can absorb the photons of such low frequency.

Experiment 3 Primary Data Source from Griffith University

Professor
Figure 3 was taken from an experimental report by Professor David Kielpinski, the
Chief Investigator at the Griffith University Research Centre for Quantum
Dynamics in Brisbane, Australia. This experiment aimed to cool ions to extremely
low temperatures with the use of extremely high-frequency femtosecond lasers.

Figure(Figures
3 Temperature
vs. Laser
detuning the temperature
The three different graphs
3a, 3b, and
3c) represent
against the detuning when performed with three different externally applied
heating rates. Figure 3a contained no external heating, 3b contained low external
heating, and 3c contained high external heating (Kielpinski, 2011). As explained
in Figure 2's analysis, the graph was more likely to continue as an exponential
function, slowly approaching the x axis and a temperature of 0 Kelvin. Figures 3b
and 3c do not support this as they begin to curve up into a parabolic trend
towards the y axis (0 detuning). This is due to the already externally applied

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 5

heating before the laser interacts with the ions. Figure 3a, which contains no
external heating, shows the exponential trend explained in the analysis of Figure
2, because like Figure 2, it was no heat was applied externally.
The external heating is applied to make the optimum detuning value for the
lowest achievable temperature more evident. As seen in Figure 3a, it is difficult
to decide which of several points are the lowest due to low precision, whereas
with some external heating applied in Figure 3c, the minimum at approximately
-18MHz is clearly visible as the optimum value to achieve the lowest possible
temperature. The use of external heating is almost like 'zooming in' on the graph.
This could then be used in further experiments without externally applied
heating to achieve the lowest temperatures possible with this particular kind of
laser.

Experiment 4
Figure 4 is taken from an article presented by one of the Nobel Prize winners for
laser cooling mentioned earlier, Dr. William D. Phillips. The text is based on Dr.
Phillips' address on the occasion of the award in 1997, and is taken from the
National Institute of Science and Technology's Atomic Physics Division in

Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA.

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 6

The word 'density' used here means the density of the atom cloud created with
laser cooling in some form of magnetic trap, and refers to the decay of the
number of atoms over time spent within the trap. Although the data shows a
linear fit to the points, it "shows that the loss of atoms from the trap is
exponential, as expected, with a lifetime of a bit less than one second" (citation).
The white point lying far below the linear fit represents the same data but in a
worse vacuum. Phillips explains that a poor vacuum increases the decay rate of
the number of trapped atoms, and that using a vacuum with a greater pressure
can greatly increase the lifetime of a cooled atom cloud to more than a minute
rather than one second (Phillips, 1998). The graph shows that over time, the
number of atoms lessens, but does not completely decay to nothing. As more
time passes, lower temperatures can therefore be achieved.

Conclusion and Application

The data shows that bigger is not always better. More laser detuning does not
help achieve the lowest possible temperatures. There is an optimum detuning
value for each element, and time helps decrease the number of atoms trapped in
the molasses. So where to from here?
Near-stationary atoms can be used as qubits (quantum bits) in the development
of quantum processors. At near absolute-zero temperatures, the atoms enter a
dark state where they do not absorb any photons. In this state, they experience
quantum superpositioning, where their spin property (up or down) can be both
up and down, which can represent both 1 and 0 in computer language. By being
able to represent two states at the same time, quantum computers could
theoretically perform more calculations exceptionally faster and with smaller
computers than conventional computers (ScienceDaily, 2008).

Bibliography
Simulations and general information:
Colorado, U. o. (2011). Laser Cooling. Retrieved July 29th, 2012, from Physics
2000: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/lascool1.html
Colorado, U. o. (2011). Lasers. Retrieved July 29th, 2012, from PHET Interactive
Simulations: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/lasers

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 7

Foundation, T. N. (1997, October 15th). Press Release: The Nobel Prize in Physics
in 1997. Retrieved July 20th, 2012, from Nobelprize.org:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1997/press.html
ScienceDaily. (2008, August 25th). Fast Quantum Computer Building Block
Created. Retrieved August 10th, 2012, from ScienceDaily.com:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080820162956.htm

Research articles:
Experiment 1:
Xu, B. M. (2008, December 1st). Realization of a single-beam mini magnetooptical trap: A candidate for compact CPT cold atom-clocks. Retrieved July 28th,
2012, from ScienceDirect.com:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030401808007827
Experiment 2:
Russell, L. (2011, December 5th). Sub-Doppler temperature measurements of
laser-cooled atoms using optical nanofibres. Retrieved July 28th, 2012, from IOP
Science: http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-0233/23/1/015201/article
Experiment 3:
Kielpinski, D. (2011, August 8th). Final Report on AOARD contract FA2386-10-14090, Laser cooling with ultrafast pulse trains". Retrieved July 22nd, 2012, from
Defence Technical Information Centre: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?
AD=ADA547504
Experiment 4:
Phillips, W. D. (1998, July). Laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms. Retrieved
July 23rd, 2012, from Physical Review Letters:
http://prl.aps.org/files/RevModPhys.70.721.pdf

Phillip Soalheira

Mr Gillespie

12PH.01

Page | 8