Rapid determination of the gas temperature in magnetooptical traps

We have considered a simple method for estimating the gas temperature in a magnetooptical trap. In this method, only one of three laser beams in the magnetooptical trap is shut down. Then, the light scattered by the atoms of the remaining beams makes it possible to observe the spread of the atoms in real time without using additional lasers. An analysis of the measuring data has convincingly proved their conformity with theoretical estimates. This method can be useful for the approximate express analysis of the magnetooptical trap performance.