Proposal for a High-Density Dark Optical Trap

We show that by using an atomic-transition scheme including a common angular momentum Jg = 1 atomic ground state and two excited states with angular momenta Je1 = Je2 = 1 or Je1 = 0 and Je2 = 1, one can construct an all-optical trap, where atoms are trapped and cooled towards a single nearly dark quantum state with a spatial dimension of the order of an optical wavelength. Single-atom calculations for two blue detuned counterpropagating σ+ and σ− polarized light fields in one dimension predict that close to 100% of the atomic population will be transferred to the lowest quantum state.