Toshio YONEYAMA and Shunichi SATO

Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, 2-1-1 Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

(Received February 8, 2005; Accepted August 15, 2005)

Two step white light slowing of a cesium atomic beam was demonstrated by using two kinds of frequency modulated diode lasers. In addition to a frequency modulated free-running diode laser used for the first step of wide range deceleration, a frequency modulated external cavity diode laser (ECDL) with narrower and sharper spectrum was used for the second step deceleration. It was shown that the number of slowed atoms was increased more than twofold by the two step deceleration which kept narrow velocity width of 27 m/s, which is smaller than that by only the single step deceleration.

Key words: atomic beam, cesium, laser cooling, external cavity diode laser, frequency modulated diode laser