Cooling and resonance fluorescence of two atoms in a one-dimensional optical molasses
Jingzhong Guo, J. Cooper · Physical Review A · 1995
We derive a generalized master equation, which describes the quantized cooling of identical atoms in the laser fields. The effects of the dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms are included explicitly in the master equation. We then calculate the steady-state density matrix of two atoms cooled by a one-dimensional optical molasses. It is shown that when the mean separation between these atoms reduces below the optical wavelength \ensuremath{\lambda}/2\ensuremath{\pi}, cooling will be significantly limited due to the enhanced atom-atom interaction. Based on the quantum regression theorem, we also calculate the resonance fluorescence spectrum emitted by these two atoms, which exhibits features different from those of isolated atoms.