Laser cooling in anisotropic traps

The temperature and phase space density of dense, cylindrical atomic clouds is investigated in a 2D magneto-optic trap (MOT). As the atom cloud is deformed to reduce the radial optical density, the temperature decreases due to suppression of photon rescattering, leading to an increase in phase space density. Phase space densities of 2 times 10
^-4
have been achieved in a MOT containing 2 times 10
⁸
atoms