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arXiv:1312.6442 · Scientific Reports

Light-induced atomic desorption in a compact system for ultracold atoms

Lara Torralbo-Campo, Graham D. Bruce, G. Smirne, Donatella Cassettari

Published Oct 13, 2015• 36 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In recent years, light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) of alkali atoms from the inner surface of a vacuum chamber has been employed in cold atom experiments for the purpose of modulating the alkali background vapour. This is beneficial because larger trapped atom samples can be loaded from vapour at higher pressure, after which the pressure is reduced to increase the lifetime of the sample. We present an analysis, based on the case of rubidium atoms adsorbed on pyrex, of various aspects of LIAD that are useful for this application. Firstly, we study the intensity dependence of LIAD by fitting the experimental data with a rate-equation model, from which we extract a correct prediction for the increase in trapped atom number. Following this, we quantify a figure of merit for the utility of LIAD in cold atom experiments and we show how it can be optimised for realistic experimental parameters.

DOI
10.1038/srep14729

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In recent years, light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) of alkali atoms from the inner surface of a vacuum chamber has been employed in cold atom experiments for the purpose of modulating the alkali background vapour. This is beneficial because larger trapped atom samples can be loaded from vapour at higher pressure, after which the pressure is reduced to increase the lifetime of the sample. We present an analysis, based on the case of rubidium atoms adsorbed on pyrex, of various aspects of LIAD that are useful for this application. Firstly, we study the intensity dependence of LIAD by fitting the experimental data with a rate-equation model, from which we extract a correct prediction for the increase in trapped atom number. Following this, we quantify a figure of merit for the utility of LIAD in cold atom experiments and we show how it can be optimised for realistic experimental parameters.
We present in this paper recent results on Light - Induced Atom Desorption (LIAD) in sealed and open coated cells. LIAD is defined via the description of an experiment on rubidium atoms stored in a dry - film coated cell, where a few milliwatts of even non coherent and non resonant light are able to increase the alkali atomic density for more than one order of magnitude. Modeling of the effect is given. New features become relevant in the case of LIAD in porous glasses: in fact, although the photodesorption efficiency per unit area in bare glass is much lower, photoatomic sources can be prepared, due to the huge inner surface of porous samples. We applied LIAD from organic coatings to the stabilization of alkali densities out of equilibrium: sodium case is here discussed. Finally, we report on fully original, preliminary measurements of rubidium Magneto - Optical Trap loading via LIAD from a dry - film coated cell.
We review some recent studies on light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) from dielectric surfaces. Alkali-metal atoms adsorbed either on organic films or on porous glass are released into the vapor phase under illumination. The measurements were performed in Pyrex resonance cells either coated with siloxane films or containing a porous glass sample. In both cases, the experimental results show that LIAD can be used to produce atomic densities suitable for most atomic physics experiments. Moreover, we find that photoinduced effects, correlated with LIAD, produce reversible formation and evaporation of alkali-metal clusters in porous glass. These processes depend on the light frequency, making the porous glass transmittance controllable by light.
With the help of light-emitting diodes at the center wavelength of 470 nm, we demonstrate that light-induced atom desorption (LIAD) can be used for flexibly controlling the loading of magneto-optical traps (MOT) of cesium atoms. Under an ultralow background pressure in a quartz cell without any wall coating, we show that low intensity blue light can be used to control the loading rates (from 200 to 4000 atoms/s) and the number of cesium atoms (on the order of 104{10}^{4}104 in our experiment) in a MOT without the use of dispensers or any secondary atom source. A theoretical model based on an atom loading rate equation is built which can simulate the magneto-optical trap loading process with LIAD. The theoretical results are in agreement with experimental data. Some important parameters of the vacuum system are determined accordingly. The decay time of the vacuum pressure is about 70 ms, which is much shorter than the usual vacuum system for experiments on atomic ensembles. It is very difficult to measure such short times by the traditional fluorescence detection of cold atoms due to the slow loading process. The change of desorption rate (on the order of 1013 atoms/s{10}^{13}\text{ }\text{atoms}/\text{s}1013 atoms/s) for the different desorption intensities is also determined based on the background pressure caused by noncesium atoms in the cell. According to the experimental data and theoretical calculations, we obtain a partial pressure of about $1.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\text{ }\text{Torr}$ for the untrapped cesium atoms and about $6.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\text{ }\text{Torr}$ for the noncesium atoms at the moment the desorption light is turned off. The system is almost an ideal vacuum system for transferring atoms into another region for further experiments.
This work is devoted to a systematic study of the effect of Light-Induced Atomic Desorption (LIAD). LIAD is a non-heating process in which atoms adsorbed on a surface are desorbed by illumination with non-resonant light. The aim of the dissertation is an experimental study of the LIAD process, its influence on the spectra of alkali atoms in optical cells without and with Anti-Relaxation Coating (ARC) and the possibilities of LIAD for optical characterization of ARC, as well as in high resolution spectroscopy. For the first time, the LIAD process under homogeneous illumination was investigated experimentally, whereby the efficiency of the LIAD was significantly increased even for a cell without ARC, the dynamic characteristics are obtained with a better signal to noise ratio and repeatability, and the desorption and adsorption processes are faster. LIAD effect in cells with different ARC coatings has shown that each coating has different desorption and adsorption rates and the results obtained show the possibility of applying the method for optical characterization of ARC. An experimental study of the number of collisions without atomic spin depolarization in cells with different ARCs and the impact of LIAD was performed, as well as various parameters such as laser intensity and cell temperature were investigated.
An investigation of the influence of light-induced atomic desorption (LIAD) on the transmission spectra from point of view of LIAD application for miniaturization of magneto-optical sensors and anti-relaxation coatings diagnostics is reported. With reduction of the dimensions of the cells, the amplitude of the signals decreases and it can be compensated by increasing the atomic density with temperature using special high temperature anti-relaxation coatings, or by LIAD. LIAD is a non-thermal process in which atoms adsorbed at a surface are released under illumination. It is investigated in various papers and has different applications - vapor density stabilization, MOT loading, surface nanostructuring etc. In this work the dependence of the shape of the absorption spectra on the laser power and blue light power is measured and analysis of the influence of different factors is done. All measurements are performed on the Rb D2 line in 3 different vacuum cells (uncoated, paraffin coated and SC-77 coated) with a 460 nm light emitting diode illumination. The good knowledge of the factors influencing the alkali atom spectra will be useful not only for the development of new alloptical sensors, but for study atom-dielectric surface interactions and development of new all-optical methods for surface and coating diagnostics.