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arXiv:2607.02813 · Review of Scientific Instruments

Reconfigurable Bitter-type electromagnet for Zeeman slowing

Emma G. Hataway, Emma K. Falk, Kaia E. O'Neill, Morgan P. Berghof, Ben A. Olsen

Published Oct 1, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Many Zeeman slower magnets are geometrically captured by a vacuum chamber, preventing modification or repair without breaking the vacuum. We describe a Bitter-type electromagnet coil design that can be easily disassembled, reconfigured, repaired, and replaced without disturbing the vacuum system. This coil, designed to slow lithium atoms, produces a near-ideal field profile with a single DC power supply. With a resistance of 5.7(9) mΩ, an inductance of 8.8(2) μH, and switching times as low as ∼100μs, the coil compares favorably to other designs and can be disassembled, modified, and reassembled repeatedly without loss of performance. With forced-air cooling, the coil experiences moderate heating. This coil design offers greater flexibility than traditional electromagnet designs, and it can be retrofitted onto existing ultra-high vacuum chambers.

DOI
10.1063/5.0350903

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Many Zeeman slower magnets are geometrically captured by a vacuum chamber, preventing modification or repair without breaking the vacuum. We describe a Bitter-type electromagnet coil design that can be easily disassembled, reconfigured, repaired, and replaced without disturbing the vacuum system. This coil, designed to slow lithium atoms, produces a near-ideal field profile with a single DC power supply. With a resistance of 5.7(9) mΩ, an inductance of 8.8(2) μH, and switching times as low as ∼100μs, the coil compares favorably to other designs and can be disassembled, modified, and reassembled repeatedly without loss of performance. With forced-air cooling, the coil experiences moderate heating. This coil design offers greater flexibility than traditional electromagnet designs, and it can be retrofitted onto existing ultra-high vacuum chambers.
We describe the design, construction, and characterization of a Bitter-type electromagnet that produces a spatially-dependent magnetic field used for Zeeman slowing in cold-atom experiments. The coil consists of stacked copper arcs separated by PTFE spacers of varying thicknesses, generating a near-optimal field profile using a single power supply. With an electrical resistance of 26.5(3) mΩ and self-inductance of 19.1(1) μH, our design achieves a fast electrical switching time of τ ≈ 100 μs in a compact, 30-cm-long package. Water circulating helically through holes in the copper and channels in the spacers ensures efficient thermal management, limiting the temperature rise to ∼5° C over 36 s of continuous operation at 200 A.
We present the design, construction, and characterization of Bitter-type electromagnets which can generate high magnetic fields under continuous operation with efficient heat removal for cold atom experiments. The electromagnets are constructed from a stack of alternating layers consisting of copper arcs and insulating polyester spacers. Efficient cooling of the copper is achieved via parallel rectangular water cooling channels between copper layers with low resistance to flow; a high ratio of the water-cooled surface area to the volume of copper ensures a short length scale (~1 mm) to extract dissipated heat. High copper fraction per layer ensures high magnetic field generated per unit energy dissipated. The ensemble is highly scalable and compressed to create a watertight seal without epoxy. From our measurements, a peak field of 770 G is generated 14 mm away from a single electromagnet with a current of 400 A and a total power dissipation of 1.6 kW. With cooling water flowing at 3.8 l/min, the coil temperature only increases by 7 °C under continuous operation.
We create a pair of symmetric Bitter-type electromagnet assemblies capable of producing multiple field configurations including uniform magnetic fields, spherical quadruple traps, or Ioffe–Pritchard magnetic bottles. Unlike other designs, our coil allows both radial and azimuthal cooling water flows by incorporating an innovative 3D-printed water distribution manifold. Combined with a double-coil geometry, such orthogonal flows permit stacking of non-concentric Bitter coils. We achieve a low thermal resistance of 4.2(1) °C kW−1 and high water flow rate of 10.0(3) l min−1 at a pressure of 190(10) kPa.
Zeeman slowers come in two commonly used types: electromagnet-based slowers and permanent-magnet slowers. Both have characteristic advantages and disadvantages. The electric currents required to create strong magnetic fields lead to heat dissipation that limits the achievable fields, while permanent-magnet slowers cause bias magnetic fields at the position of the magneto-optical trap. Here, we combine both approaches and their advantages at our lithium-6 triangular-lattice quantum gas microscope and extend the field of an electromagnet-based Zeeman slower using permanent magnets. We observe nearly doubled loading rates of the magneto-optical trap and no significant stray fields in the trapping region. Our approach allows for a stronger magnetic field in places where geometric constraints prevent the use of coils, and it provides a low-cost upgrade to the loading rate at established experiments.
We describe a simple Zeeman slower design using permanent magnets. Contrary to common wire-wound setups, no electric power and water cooling are required. In addition, the whole system can be assembled and disassembled at will. The magnetic field is however transverse to the atomic motion and an extra repumper laser is necessary. A Halbach configuration of the magnets produces a high quality magnetic field and no further adjustment is needed. After optimization of the laser parameters, the apparatus produces an intense beam of slow and cold (87)Rb atoms. With typical fluxes of (1-5) × 10(10) atoms/s at 30 m s(-1), our apparatus efficiently loads a large magneto-optical trap with more than 10(10) atoms in 1 s, which is an ideal starting point for degenerate quantum gas experiments.
We describe a simple slow atom source for loading a rubidium magneto-optical trap. The source includes an effusive oven with a long heated collimation tube. Almost all components are standard vacuum parts. The heating elements and thermocouples are external to the vacuum, protecting them from the hostile hot alkali environment and allowing repair without breaking vacuum. The thermal source is followed by a Zeeman slower with a single-layer coil of variable winding pitch. The single-layer design is simple to construct and has low inductance which allows for rapid switching of the magnetic field. The coil pitch was determined by fitting the analytic form of the magnetic field for a variable winding pitch to the desired magnetic field profile required to slow atoms. The measured magnetic field for the constructed coil is in excellent agreement with the desired field. The source produces atoms at 35 m/s with a flux up to 2 x 10(10) cm(-2) s(-1) at 200 degrees C.