QUANTIZATION OF ATOMIC MOTION IN OPTICAL MOLASSES

We present a quantum treatment of laser cooling of neutral atoms. The cooling mechanism studied is the <<Sisyphus>> process for 1-dimensional optical molasses. We first derive the energy eigenstates for the atom moving in the potential associated with the light-shifts due to the laser. Then, taking into account optical pumping, we calculate the steady-state populations of these quantum levels in the secular approximation. This approach allows us to determine the atomic eigenfrequencies in the optical wells, as well as momentum and position distributions. In particular, the minimum r.m.s. atomic momentum is congruent-to 6 single-photon momenta; this result was not accessible to previous semi-classical treatments.