Experimental Observation of Optically Trapped Atoms

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

We report the first observation of optically trapped atoms. Sodium atoms cooled below 10^-3 K in "optical molasses" are captured by a dipole-force optical trap created by a single, strongly focused, Gaussian laser beam tuned several hundred gigahertz below the D₁ resonance transition. We estimate that about 500 atoms are confined in a volume of about 10³ {μ}m³ at a density of 10¹¹-10¹² cm^-3. Trap lifetimes are limited by background pressure to several seconds. The observed trapping behavior is in good quantitative agreement with theoretical expectations.