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arXiv:0707.1703 · Physical Review Letters

Trapping of Neutral Rubidium with a Macroscopic Three-Phase Electric Trap

T. Rieger, Patrick Windpassinger, S. A. Rangwala, Gerhard Rempe, Pepijn W. H. Pinkse

Published Aug 6, 2007• 21 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We trap neutral ground-state rubidium atoms in a macroscopic trap based on purely electric fields. For this, three electrostatic field configurations are alternated in a periodic manner. The rubidium is precooled in a magneto-optical trap, transferred into a magnetic trap, and then translated into the electric trap. The electric trap consists of six rod-shaped electrodes in cubic arrangement, giving ample optical access. Up to 10;{5} atoms have been trapped with an initial temperature of around 20 microkelvin in the three-phase electric trap. The observations are in good agreement with detailed numerical simulations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.99.063001

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We trap neutral ground-state rubidium atoms in a macroscopic trap based on purely electric fields. For this, three electrostatic field configurations are alternated in a periodic manner. The rubidium is precooled in a magneto-optical trap, transferred into a magnetic trap, and then translated into the electric trap. The electric trap consists of six rod-shaped electrodes in cubic arrangement, giving ample optical access. Up to 10;{5} atoms have been trapped with an initial temperature of around 20 microkelvin in the three-phase electric trap. The observations are in good agreement with detailed numerical simulations.
We demonstrate trapping of an ultracold gas of neutral atoms in a macroscopic ac electric trap. Three-dimensional confinement is obtained by switching between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. Stable trapping is observed in a narrow range of switching frequencies around 60 Hz. The dynamic confinement of the atoms is directly visualized at different phases of the ac switching cycle. We observe about 10(5) Rb atoms in the 1 mm3 large and several microkelvins deep trap with a lifetime of approximately 5 s.
Abstract That the laser cooling and trapping of neutral atoms are interrelated has already been said in the introduction to Chapter 5. We shall, therefore, now consider various techniques whereby cold atoms can be trapped. All the known techniques for trapping laser-cooled neutral atoms can be classified according to a few basic methods. These basic methods are optical trapping using the forces of the electric dipole interaction between atoms and laser fields, magnetic trapping based on the use of the forces of the magnetic dipole interaction, mixed magneto-optical trapping using simultaneous interaction between atoms and magnetic and laser fields, and mixed gravitooptical and gravito-magnetic trapping. Traps for neutral atoms can have a wide variety of geometries and dimensions: (a) macroscopic traps with a size of a »λ, (b) microscopic traps with a size of a ≃λ/2, (c) various combinations of macroscopic and microscopic traps (one-, two-, and three-dimensional) in the case of optical lattices, and finally (d) nanoscopic traps with a size of a «λ/2.
Research interest in designing sources of cold atoms has significantly increased during the past ten years with the development of suitable laser sources for magneto-optical trapping and the further mastering of evaporative cooling in order to achieve Bose-Einstein condensation. The magneto-optical trap is now viewed as a standard research facility worldwide and has opened up many new exciting research directions in atomic physics. One area of interest is that of combining spherical microcavities with cold atomic sources in order to achieve efficient photon exchange between the cavity and atom for further understandings of cavity quantum electrodynamics. This could eventually lead to atom entanglement via photon exchange which would have implications for quantum logic design. However, initial attempts to achieve such interactions have been hindered by inadequate control and manipulation of the cold atom source. Here, we present work on designing and building an ultra-stable source of magneto-optically cooled rubidium atoms with a temperature in the tens of microKelvin range. We discuss the different cooling mechanisms involved in the process and present a suitable experimental arrangement including details on the ultra-high vacuum chamber, the laser systems being used and the source of rubidium vapour. Finally, we discuss some future direction for the research including the diffraction of atoms from gratings and micron-sized objects and the parameter control of the cloud of atoms.
We study the dynamic behavior of ultracold neutral atoms in a macroscopic ac electric trap. Confinement in such a trap is achieved by switching between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. The gradual formation of a stably trapped cloud is observed and the trap performance is studied versus the switching frequency and the symmetry of the switching cycle. Additionally, the electric field in the trap is mapped out by imaging the atom cloud while the fields are still on. Finally, the phase-space acceptance of the trap is probed by introducing a modified switching cycle. The experimental results are reproduced using full three-dimensional trajectory calculations.