Positronium Laser Cooling Via the 13S−23P Transition with a Broadband Laser Pulse

We report on laser cooling of a large fraction of positronium (Ps) in free flight by strongly saturating the 1(3)S -2(3)P transition with a broadband, long-pulsed 243 nm alexandrite laser. The ground state Ps cloud is produced in a magnetic and electric field-free environment. We observe two different laser-induced effects. The first effect is an increase in the number of atoms in the ground state after the time Ps has spent in the long-lived 2(3)P states. The second effect is one-dimensional Doppler cooling of Ps, reducing the cloud's temperature from 380(20) to 170(20) K. We demonstrate a 58(9)% increase in the fraction of Ps atoms with v(1D) < 3.7 x 10(4)ms(-1).