Trapping atoms with optical potentials

Ultralow temperatures produced with polarization-gradient cooling now allow atoms to be trapped in shallow optical potential wells. We present evidence for the quantized motion of atoms in a 1-D optical molasses with the observation of spontaneous Raman transitions between vibrational levels in these wells, observed in fluorescence. In addition, we discuss the features of a far off resonance trap (FORT) -- a single focus dipole force trap so far off resonance to be an essentially ground-state trap.