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arXiv:1304.7980 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Trapping of85Rb atoms by optical pumping between metastable hyperfine states

N Cooper, Tim Freegarde

Published Oct 28, 2013• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We describe an atom trapping mechanism based upon differential optical pumping between metastable hyperfine states by partially-displaced laser beams in the absence of a magnetic field. With realistic laser powers, trap spring constants should match or exceed those typical of magneto-optical traps, and highly flexible tailored trap shapes should be achievable. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we have combined a 1D implementation with magneto-optical trapping in the orthogonal directions, capturing ~10000 85Rb atoms. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/46/21/215003/article.

DOI
10.1088/0953-4075/46/21/215003

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We describe an atom trapping mechanism based upon differential optical pumping between metastable hyperfine states by partially-displaced laser beams in the absence of a magnetic field. With realistic laser powers, trap spring constants should match or exceed those typical of magneto-optical traps, and highly flexible tailored trap shapes should be achievable. In a proof-of-principle experiment, we have combined a 1D implementation with magneto-optical trapping in the orthogonal directions, capturing ~10000 85Rb atoms. This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://iopscience.iop.org/0953-4075/46/21/215003/article.
We demonstrate laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of europium. The atoms are optically pumped to a metastable state and then loaded from an atomic-beam source via conventional Zeeman slowing and magneto-optical trapping techniques using a $J=13/2\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}J=15/2$ quasicyclic transition. The trapped populations contained up to $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms, and a two-body loss rate is estimated as $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}/\mathrm{s}$ from the nonexponential loss of atoms at high densities. We also observed leakage out of the quasicyclic transition to the two metastable states with J=9/2J=9/2J=9/2 and 11/211/211/2, which is adequate to pump the laser-cooled atoms back to the J=7/2J=7/2J=7/2 ground state.
We describe a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) capable of simultaneously capturing 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. Unlike conventional setups, our system utilizes two separate laser systems that are combined before entering the vacuum chamber, enabling the simultaneous trapping of two different atomic species. Additionally, in our 3D MOT configuration, two (of three) pairs of laser beams are not orthogonal to the chamber surfaces but are aligned at a 45° angle. With a total trapping laser power of 8 mW and repump laser power of 4 mW for Rb atoms, and a total trapping laser power of 7.5 mW and repump laser power of 1.5 mW for Cs atoms, we achieve optical depths (OD) of 3.71 for Rb and 3.45 for Cs, demonstrating efficient trapping for both species. Our 3D MOT setup allows full horizontal optical access to the trapped atomic ensembles without spatial interference from the trapping or repump laser beams. Moreover, the red detuning for trapping both atomic species is smaller than in traditional configurations. This system offers a versatile platform for exploring complex phenomena in ultracold atom physics, such as Rydberg molecule formation and interspecies interactions.
We describe several novel techniques for the optical trapping of ultracold atoms and for the production of wavelength-stabilised, coherent light at the frequencies required for use in atomic physics experiments. The greater part of this thesis deals with work towards the creation of regular arrays of microscopic optical dipole traps formed at the foci of truncated spherical cavities in a metallic film, in which the inter-site spacing can be set anywhere between one and several hundred micrometers. Arrays of such cavities are synthesised and structurally characterised via optical and electron microscopy, and numerical simulations of the light intensity distribution near the foci of such cavities under normal illumination are used to confirm their suitability for dipole trap production. A method for the construction of arrays of magneto-optical traps based on such structures is proposed and theoretically examined, and some preliminary experimental work towards the synthesis of the required microstructures is also described. Possible approaches to the loading of such traps and the imaging of the atoms contained therein are discussed - experimental work towards ballistic atom transfer from a specialised form of magneto-optical trap that can be formed close to a microstructured surface is carried out, and the efficacy of wavelength-selective fluorescence imaging as a means of reducing the effects of background scatter from the surface is experimentally demonstrated. Further work described herein includes the proposal and experimental demonstration of two novel techniques for the removal of the carrier wave from a phase-modulated laser beam, one of which is based on a fiber-optic Mach-Zehnder interferometer that is shown to be an effective device for splitting or combining beams of nearly equal frequencies. A spontaneous-force based atom trapping mechanism that does not rely on the use of a magnetic field, but rather on spatially-dependent optical pumping between different metastable atomic states, is also proposed, and a proof of principle experiment is carried out to demonstrate the validity of the suggested mechanism. We find that this trapping scheme allows the spatial dependence of the trapping force to be tailored with a greater degree of flexibility than is usually possible with magneto-optical trapping, and that it is also capable of producing traps with stronger spring constants than are typically achievable with magneto-optical trapping under realistic experimental constraints.
Abstract We describe a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) capable of simultaneously capturing 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. Unlike conventional setups, our system utilizes two separate laser systems that are combined before entering the vacuum chamber, enabling the simultaneous trapping of two different atomic species. We trapped 85Rb and 133Cs atoms using relatively low total power: 8 mW cooling and 4 mW repump for 85Rb, and 7.5 mW cooling and 1.5 mW repump for 133Cs. The number of trapped atoms was 1.6 × 108 for 85Rb and 1.4 × 108 for 133Cs. The optical depths were 3.71 for 85Rb and 3.45 for 133Cs. The temperature of trapped atoms was ∼200 μK for 85Rb and ∼200 μK for 133Cs. Our 3D MOT setup allows full horizontal optical access to the trapped atomic ensembles without spatial interference from the trapping or repump laser beams. Our vacuum system is also quite simple, avoiding much of the complexity typically encountered in similar dual-species systems. However, the red detuning of the cooling laser used for atomic trapping in our system is relatively small, leaving room for further optimization. This system offers a versatile platform for exploring complex phenomena in ultracold atom physics, such as Rydberg molecule formation and interspecies interactions.
We report on the realization of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for europium atoms using a narrow-line cooling transition with a natural linewidth of 97 kHz. Europium is a strongly dipolar species with interesting properties, such as the presence of hyperfine structure and the absence of electronic orbital angular momentum. Our starting point of the MOT is continuous capturing and cooling of optically pumped metastable europium atoms. We have employed simultaneous MOT for the metastable and ground-state atoms. The trapped metastable atoms are successively pumped back to the ground state and then continuously loaded to the narrow-line MOT, where up to $4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms are captured. A spin-polarized sample at a temperature of $6\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ and with a peak number density of $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{11}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ is obtained through the compression process, resulting in a phase space density of $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$.
We simultaneously confine fermionic metastable 3He^{3}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms and bosonic metastable 4He^{4}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}4He atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The trapped clouds, containing up to $1.5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{8}$ atoms of each isotope, are characterized by measuring ions and metastable helium atoms escaping from the trap. Optical pumping of 3He^{3}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He atoms to a nontrapped hyperfine state is investigated and it is shown that large atom numbers can be confined without additional repumping lasers. Unique possibilities for quantum degeneracy experiments with mixtures of spin-polarized metastable 3He^{3}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}3He and 4He^{4}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}4He atoms are indicated.