Radiative collisional heating at the Doppler limit for laser-cooled magnesium atoms

• We report Monte Carlo wave function simulation results on cold collisions between magnesium atoms in a strong red-detuned laser field. This is the normal situation, e.g., in magneto-optical traps (MOT). The Doppler limit heating rate due to radiative collisions is calculated for Mg-24 atoms in an MOT based on the S-1(0)-P-1(1) atomic laser cooling transition. We find that radiative heating does not seem to affect the Doppler limit in this case. We also describe a channeling mechanism due to the missing Q branch in the excitation scheme, which could lead to a suppression of inelastic collisions, and find that this mechanism is not present in our simulation results due to the multistate character of the excitation process.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

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