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Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference

An Intense, Laser-cooled Source Of Metastable Helium Atoms

Wei-Jian Lu, Dragana Milic, R. M. S. Knops, Maarten D. Hoogerland, K. G. H. Baldwin, Stephen J. Buckman

Published May 18, 1997• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

One of the advantages of atom optics compared with conventional optics is the ability to increase the brightness of an atomic beam relative to the original source. This arises from the use of dissipative light forces to cool the atoms, thereby increasing the atomic phase space density. We describe progress in the development of a system that increases the brightness of a conventional expanding nozzle source to create an intense, collimated beam of metastable helium atoms.

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Physical Review Letters•Nov 16, 2004•47 citations
One of the advantages of atom optics compared with conventional optics is the ability to increase the brightness of an atomic beam relative to the original source. This arises from the use of dissipative light forces to cool the atoms, thereby increasing the atomic phase space density. We describe progress in the development of a system that increases the brightness of a conventional expanding nozzle source to create an intense, collimated beam of metastable helium atoms.
Intense, highly collimated sources of atoms have many potential applications. Bright beams will be important for competitive high flux and high resolution direct-write techniques in lithography, with the added advantage of parallel writing through laser manipulation. Intense sources will also be useful in other atom optic devices e.g. for loading atoms into hollow fiber waveguides. In atomic physics, many collision processes can only be measured with the sensitivity offered by such high flux sources. We report progress on the development of an intense, collimated beam of metastable helium atoms which improves the brightness generated by conventional nozzle discharge sources by several orders of magnitude. The system uses diode lasers to transversely collimate and then to longitudinally slow the atoms, using Zeeman tuning to compensate for the changing Doppler shift. The slowed, collimated beam is then compressed in a 2D magneto-optic trap before a final collimation stage, to achieve the required increase in intensity. Initial experiments using the helium source for some of the applications above are described.
Intense, highly collimated sources of atoms have many potential applications. Bright beams will be important for competitive high flux and high resolution direct-write techniques in lithography, with the added advantage of parallel writing through laser manipulation. Intense sources will also be useful in other atom optic devices e.g. for loading atoms into hollow fiber waveguides. In atomic physics, many collision processes can only be measured with the sensitivity offered by such high flux sources. We report progress on the development of an intense, collimated beam of metastable helium atoms which improves the brightness generated by conventional nozzle discharge sources by several orders of magnitude. The system uses diode lasers to transversely collimate and then to longitudinally slow the atoms, using Zeeman tuning to compensate for the changing Doppler shift. The slowed, collimated beam is then compressed in a 2D magneto-optic trap before a final collimation stage, to achieve the required increase in intensity. Initial experiments using the helium source for some of the applications above are described.
The study of collisions between excited atoms requires high-intensity atomic beams to achieve detector signals of sufficient strength. Producing large densities of excited rare gas atoms R is especially difficult, since with conventional sources metastable atoms R make up a tiny fraction of ≈10-5 of the total beam flux. In such cases, 'brightening' the beam is the only way to achieve a sufficiently large flux. We have followed a scheme proposed by Metcalf to brighten an atomic beam of neon. The setup employs laser cooling on the Ne((3s)3P2 → (3p)3D3) cycling transition, and consists of three stages. First, we collimate all atoms emerging from a discharge source within a half-angle θ0 = 100 mrad. Second, the collimated beam is focused to a point. Third, the now converging beam is re-collimated to form a thin and bright atomic beam.
The bichromatic force has been used to both slow and collimate a beam of metastable 23S{2}^{3}S23S He atoms (He*). The collimation capture range is an extraordinary $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}85\text{ }\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}$ corresponding to $\ensuremath{\sim}0.18$ radians from our source. Both slowing and collimation were accomplished in the unprecedented short distance of $\ensuremath{\sim}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}$ each. The overall brightness increase is $\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}3200$, and there is potential for considerably more.