Radiation pressure and laser cooling of a three-level atom in a ladder configuration

Radiation pressure and laser cooling of a moving three-level ladder-type atom in bichromatic travelling fields are considered. The dependence of the force on parameters such as detunings, Rabi frequencies and spontaneous decay rates is calculated numerically and shown graphically, and analytical expressions for the force are obtained for some special parameter values. It is shown that the radiation pressure shows Doppler-shifted resonance peaks resulting respectively from one-photon and two-photon transitions. Using the present scheme, Doppler cooling of sodium exploiting the 3{}^2S_{1/2}－3{}^2P_{3/2}－3{}^2D_{5/2} cascade transitions is investigated. It is found that temperatures lower than the Doppler limit can be achieved.