Raman sideband cooling of a single atom in an optical dipole trap: Towards theoretical optimum in a three-dimensional regime

Abstract: We clarify the optimal conditions for the protocol of Raman sideband cooling (RSC) of a single atom confined with a tightly focused far-off-resonant optical dipole trap (optical tweezers). The protocol ultimately pursues cooling to a three-dimensional ground state of the confining potential. We show that the RSC protocol has to fulfil a set of critical requirements for the parameters of cooling beams and the excitation geometry to be effective in a most general three-dimensional confguration and for an atom, having initial temperature between the recoil and the Doppler bounds. We perform a numerical simulation of the Raman passage for an example of an $^{85}$Rb atom taking into account the full level structure and all possible transition channels.