Laser Preparation of a Monoenergetic Sodium Beam

A sodium atomic beam has been decelerated and cooled by a counterpropagating laser beam. Subsequently only these slow and cooled atoms with a temperature of less than 30 mK have been deflected up to an angle of 6°, using a part of the cooling laser beam. These atoms form a pure, well-defined and nearly monoenergetic slow atomic beam, as desired for many applications of cold atoms.