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Positronium Laser Cooling via the 13S−23P Transition with a Broadband Laser Pulse

L. T. Glöggler1, N. Gusakova1,2, B. Rienäcker3,*, A. Camper4,†, R. Caravita5,‡, S. Huck1,6, M. Volponi1,7,5, T. Wolz1, L. Penasa7,5 et al. (AEḡIS Collaboration)

L. Penasa7,5, V. Krumins1,8, F. P. Gustafsson1, D. Comparat9, M. Auzins8, B. Bergmann10, P. Burian10, R. S. Brusa7,5, F. Castelli11,12, G. Cerchiari13, R. Ciuryło14, G. Consolati11,15, M. Doser1, Ł. Graczykowski16, M. Grosbart1, F. Guatieri7,5, S. Haider1, M. A. Janik16, G. Kasprowicz17, G. Khatri1, Ł. Kłosowski14, G. Kornakov16, L. Lappo16, A. Linek14, J. Malamant4, S. Mariazzi7,5, V. Petracek18, M. Piwiński14, S. Pospíšil10, L. Povolo7,5, F. Prelz11, S. A. Rangwala19, T. Rauschendorfer1,20, B. S. Rawat3,21, V. Rodin3, O. M. Røhne4, H. Sandaker4, P. Smolyanskiy10, T. Sowiński22, D. Tefelski16, T. Vafeiadis1, C. P. Welsch3,21, M. Zawada14, J. Zielinski16, and N. Zurlo23,24 (AEḡIS Collaboration)

  • 1Physics Department, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 2Department of Physics, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
  • 4Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Sem Sælandsvei 24, 0371 Oslo, Norway
  • 5TIFPA/INFN Trento, via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 6Institute for Experimental Physics, Universität Hamburg, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
  • 7Department of Physics, University of Trento, via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 8University of Latvia, Department of Physics Raina boulevard 19, LV-1586 Riga, Latvia
  • 9Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, 91405 Orsay, France
  • 10Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Husova 240/5, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic
  • 11INFN Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
  • 12Department of Physics “Aldo Pontremoli,” University of Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
  • 13Institut für Experimentalphysik, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
  • 14Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy, and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Grudziadzka 5, 87-100 Torun, Poland
  • 15Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy
  • 16Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Physics, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland
  • 17Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, ul. Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
  • 18Czech Technical University, Prague, Brehova 7, 11519 Prague 1, Czech Republic
  • 19Raman Research Institute, C. V. Raman Avenue, Sadashivanagar, Bangalore 560080, India
  • 20Felix Bloch Institute for Solid State Physics, Universität Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
  • 21The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom
  • 22Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, PL-02668 Warsaw, Poland
  • 23INFN Pavia, via Bassi 6, 27100 Pavia, Italy
  • 24Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, via Branze 43, 25123 Brescia, Italy

  • *Corresponding author: brienaec@liverpool.ac.uk
  • †Corresponding author: antoine.camper@fys.uio.no
  • ‡Corresponding author: ruggero.caravita@cern.ch
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 083402 – Published 22 February, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.083402

Abstract

We report on laser cooling of a large fraction of positronium (Ps) in free flight by strongly saturating the 13S−23P transition with a broadband, long-pulsed 243 nm alexandrite laser. The ground state Ps cloud is produced in a magnetic and electric field-free environment. We observe two different laser-induced effects. The first effect is an increase in the number of atoms in the ground state after the time Ps has spent in the long-lived 23P states. The second effect is one-dimensional Doppler cooling of Ps, reducing the cloud’s temperature from 380(20) to 170(20) K. We demonstrate a 58(9)% increase in the fraction of Ps atoms with v1D<3.7×104  ms−1.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

Laser-Cooling Positronium

Published 22 February, 2024

Researchers have managed to cool an atom-like system made of an electron and a positron using a technique commonly used in cold-atom experiments.

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Article Text

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 083402– Published 22 February, 2024
  • Received 13 October 2023
  • Accepted 18 January 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by CERN.

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