CALCULATION OF ENHANCED SLOWING AND COOLING DUE TO THE ADDITION OF A TRAVELING-WAVE TO AN INTENSE OPTICAL STANDING WAVE

We investigate the force on a two-level atom interacting with intense monochromatic laser fields which are combinations of standing and traveling waves. We present a continued-fraction solution to the optical Bloch equations. Using this solution to calculate the force on an atom, we have examined the slowing and cooling of a thermal Na atomic beam. We find that the addition of a traveling wave to an intense standing wave can significantly improve the slowing rate and simultaneously decrease the final velocity of the cooled beam.