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arXiv:2511.08193 · Physical Review Applied

A Compact Dual-Beam Zeeman Slower for High-Flux Cold Atoms

Chen Chen, Kejun Liu, Dezhou Deng, Shuchang Ma, Peng Zhu, Zhichang He, J. F. Che, Xiaoxiao Wu, Peng Chen

physics.atom-phquant-phSubmitted Nov 11, 2025• Announced Nov 12, 2025• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present a compact design of dual-beam Zeeman slower optimized for efficient production of cold atom applications. Traditional single-beam configurations face challenges from substantial residual atomic flux impacting downstream optical windows, resulting in increased system size, atomic deposition contamination, and a reduced operational lifetime. Our approach employs two oblique laser beams and a capillary-array collimation system to address these challenges while maintaining efficient deceleration. For rubidium ($^{87}$Rb), simulations demonstrate a significant increase in the fraction of atoms captured by a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) and nearly eliminate atom-induced contamination probability at optical windows, all within a compact Zeeman slower length of 44 cm. Experimental validation with Rb and Yb demonstrates highly efficient atomic loading within the same compact design. This advancement represents a substantial improvement for high-flux cold atom applications, providing reliable performance for high-precision metrology, quantum computation and simulation.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. Applied 24, 054071, 2025
DOI
10.1103/17w5-9kqq
Comments
to be published in Phys.Rev.Applied

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We present a compact design of dual-beam Zeeman slower optimized for efficient production of cold atom applications. Traditional single-beam configurations face challenges from substantial residual atomic flux impacting downstream optical windows, resulting in increased system size, atomic deposition contamination, and a reduced operational lifetime. Our approach employs two oblique laser beams and a capillary-array collimation system to address these challenges while maintaining efficient deceleration. For rubidium (87^{87}87Rb), simulations demonstrate a significant increase in the fraction of atoms captured by a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) and nearly eliminate atom-induced contamination probability at optical windows, all within a compact Zeeman slower length of 44 cm. Experimental validation with Rb and Yb demonstrates highly efficient atomic loading within the same compact design. This advancement represents a substantial improvement for high-flux cold atom applications, providing reliable performance for high-precision metrology, quantum computation and simulation.
Integrating two chemically distinct atomic species into a miniaturized, high-flux cold-atom source is a key challenge for modern experiments with ultracold atomic mixtures and polar molecules. Here, we report a compact setup with in-series two-dimensional magneto-optical traps (2D MOTs) that provides high-flux cold lithium and rubidium atoms. Thanks to the efficient short-distance Zeeman slowing, the maximum 3D MOT loading rate of lithium atoms reaches a record value of 6.6 × 10 9 atoms/s at a moderate lithium-oven temperature of 372 degrees Celsius, which is 44 times higher than that without the Zeeman slowing light. The flux of rubidium is also as high as 2.3 × 10 9 atoms/s with the rubidium oven held at room temperature. Meanwhile, the entire vacuum-chamber system, including an ultra-high-vacuum science cell, is within a small volume of 65 × 55 × 70 cm 3 . Our work represents a substantial improvement over traditional bulky and complex dual-species cold-atom setups. It provides a good starting point for the fast production of a double-degenerate lithium-rubidium atomic mixture and large samples of ultracold lithium-rubidium ground-state molecules.
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We demonstrate a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) as a beam source for cold 6Li^{6}\text{L}\text{i}6Li atoms. The source is side loaded from an oven operated at temperatures in the range $600\ensuremath{\lesssim}T\ensuremath{\lesssim}700\text{ }\text{K}$. The performance is analyzed by loading the atoms into a three-dimensional MOT located 220 mm downstream from the source. The maximum recapture rate of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{9}\text{ }{\text{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ is obtained for $T\ensuremath{\approx}700\text{ }\text{K}$ and results in a total of up to 1010{10}^{10}1010 trapped atoms. The recaptured fraction is estimated to be $30\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}10%$ and limited by beam divergence. The most-probable velocity in the beam $({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{z})$ is varied from 18 to 70 m/s by increasing the intensity of a push beam. The source is quite monochromatic with a full width at half maximum velocity spread of 11 m/s at ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{z}=36\text{ }\text{m}/\text{s}$, demonstrating that side loading completely eliminates beam contamination by hot vapor from the oven. We identify depletion of the low-velocity tail of the oven flux as the limiting loss mechanism. Our approach is suitable for other atomic species.