Laser Deceleration of an Atomic Beam

Deceleration and velocity bunching of Na atoms in an atomic beam have been observed. The deceleration, caused by absorption of counterpropagating resonant laser light, amounts to 40% of the initial thermal velocity, corresponding to about 15 000 absorptions. Atoms were kept in resonance with the laser by using a spatially varying magnetic field to provide a changing Zeeman shift to compensate for the changing Doppler shift as the atoms decelerated.