The recent fascinating progress on laser cooling is the result of the close connection between theoretical work and the rapid technological advances in laser sources, particularly in the field of powerful semiconductor and solid-state lasers operating over a wide range of optical and near-infrared frequencies. The very close international and personal collaboration amongst the researchers resulting in a direct link between experimental data and theoretical calculations which characterize work in this field, have been important factors in the rapid comprehension of the subtle and beautiful phenomena involved in laser manipulation. This Enrico Fermi school is the first formal school fully devoted to this topic. The theoretical part of the book includes contributions on the framework for the study of the photon momentum exchanges in the absence of relaxation, recent mechanisms of laser cooling, an analysis of the cooling forces, analysis of atomic and molecular beams, cooling through coherent population trapping and the relation between laser cooling and quantum nondemolition measurements. The experimental section deals with topics such as, an analysis of atomic and molecular beams, methods and applications of laser cooling, advances in laser cooling and the new exciting field of atomic interferometry. All students and researchers working in this field will welcome this excellent review of research and progress in laser cooling, so strongly linked to the fundamental understanding of physics.

Intended for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduates with some basic knowledge of optics and quantum mechanics, this text begins with a review of the relevant results of quantum mechanics, before turning to the electromagnetic interactions involved in slowing and trapping atoms and ions, in both magnetic and optical traps. The concluding chapters discuss a broad range of applications, from atomic clocks and studies of collision processes, to diffraction and interference of atomic beams at optical lattices and Bose-Einstein condensation.

Carl Wieman's contributions have had a major impact on defining the field of atomic physics as it exists today. His ground-breaking research has included precision laser spectroscopy; using lasers and atoms to provide important table-top tests of theories of elementary particle physics; the development of techniques to cool and trap atoms using laser light, particularly in inventing much simpler, less expensive ways to do this; the understanding of how atoms interact with one another and light at ultracold temperatures; and the creation of the first Bose-Einstein condensation in a dilute gas, and the study of the properties of this condensate. In recent years, he has also turned his attention to physics education and new methods and research in that area. This indispensable volume presents his collected papers, with annotations from the author, tracing his fascinating research path and providing valuable insight about the significance of the works.

Comprehensive single source for the theory on and status of current research into laser light pressure on atoms and atomic particles. Part I presents the fundamentals of the theory of resonance light pressure, analyzes the basic relations of the radiatio9n force acting on atomic particles, discusses the properties of light pressure for fields of spatial and time structure. Part II describes investigations into the control of atoms and atomic ions by laser pressure, the cooling of atomic beams, and localized atomic ions. It also describes applications of cooled atoms and ions in atomic physics and spectroscopy.

This book is especially concerned with fundamental theoretical and experimental aspects of relativistic beam physics, recoil, and cooling phenomena in atomic and ion beams and traps, with emphasis on coherence and collective effects. The central theme is the physics of atomic laser and free electron laser, and the development of a bridge between them through the mechanism of the so-called recoil induced gain mechanism. The links between relativistic beam physics and atomic laser physics are explored. This book is targeted at an audience of non-specialists or specialists in only one of the fields mentioned above. It addresses the following topics: Fundamentals of laser cooling and trapping of atoms: theory and experiments; Quantum optics and atomic coherence effects; Laser cooling of trapped ions; from single ion to ion crystal; Spatio-temporal instabilities in optical systems; Coherence in atom optics; atomic diffraction and interferometry; Optical lattices; nonlinear effects in laser-cooled atoms; Coherent population trapping; Two-level gain and collective recoil-induced effects; Fundamental physics of relativistic particles beams; High-gain free electron laser: theory, experiments and projects; Cooling of ion beams in a storage ring; Experiments on dense laser-cooled stored ion beams.

This book deals specifically with the manipulation of atoms by laser light, describing the focusing, channeling and reflection of atoms by laser fields. It also describes the potential fields required to cause the phase change of the wave function necessary for the atomic interactions to occur.