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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Simultaneous trapping of sodium and rubidium atoms

Renato Ejnisman, York E. Young, Paul Rudy, N. P. Bigelow

Published Nov 27, 2002• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. We have studied collisional effects in the presence of light by investigating the loading times of the trap under different conditions. We have observed shorter loading times for the Na trap in the presence of either Rb isotope, compared with a single Na trap for different intensities of 589-nm light. In contrast, the loading times for the Rb isotopes were not measurably affected by the presence of Na (a similar effect was observed in an Na-Cs trap, in which the Cs trap was unaffected).

DOI
10.1109/iqec.1998.680415

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Summary form only given. We have studied collisional effects in the presence of light by investigating the loading times of the trap under different conditions. We have observed shorter loading times for the Na trap in the presence of either Rb isotope, compared with a single Na trap for different intensities of 589-nm light. In contrast, the loading times for the Rb isotopes were not measurably affected by the presence of Na (a similar effect was observed in an Na-Cs trap, in which the Cs trap was unaffected).
Summary form only given. Inelastic collisions between cold atoms can lead to their ejection from the laser trap that confines them. Understanding these trap loss collisions is important to efforts aimed at high densities of cold atoms. Previously we have observed pronounced differences in the collisional behavior of the two isotopes, /sup 85/Rb and /sup 87/Rb, for the trap laser tuned one natural linewidth below resonance. We have extended our measurements for both isotopes to smaller and larger detunings in an effort to separate the various contributions to the trap loss rate.
Examination of loading the isotopes 85^{85}85Rb and 87^{87}87Rb simultaneously into a shallow far-off-resonance trap (FORT) has revealed an unexpected decrease in maximum atom number loaded as compared to loading either isotope alone. The simultaneous loading of the FORT will be affected by additional homonuclear and heteronuclear light-assisted collisional losses. However, these losses are measured and found to be insufficient to explain the observed drop in total number of atoms loaded into the FORT. We find that our observations are consistent with a decrease in loading rate caused by inter-isotope disruptions of the efficient laser cooling required to load atoms into the optical trap.
Summary form only given. All the experiments and theories describing atomic traps and cold collisions have considered only homonuclear systems. Cold collisions involving different atomic species open up new and exciting possibilities, including high-resolution studies of heteronuclear molecular band formation. We have carried out an experiment on the simultaneous magneto-optical trapping of two alkali atoms: Na and K. Collisional rate constant of trap loss resulting from cross atomic collisions was investigated through the transient loading of the trap.
We realize a combined trap for bosonic chromium (52Cr) and rubidium (87Rb) atoms. Initial experiments focus on exploring a suitable loading scheme for the combined trap and on studies of new trap loss mechanisms originating from simultaneous trapping of two species. By comparing the trap loss from the 87Rb magneto-optical trap (MOT) in the absence and presence of magnetically trapped ground state 52Cr atoms we determine the scattering cross-section of σ inel,RbCr = 5.0 ± 4.0 × 10−18 m2 for light-induced inelastic collisions between the two species. Studying the trap loss from the Rb magneto-optical trap induced by the Cr cooling-laser light, the photoionization cross-section of the excited 5P3/1 state at an ionizing wavelength of 426 nm is measured to be σ P = 1.1 ± 0.3 × 10−21 m2.
We report measurements of collisional rate constants for cold Rb atoms held in a magneto-optical trap. 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb and 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb display significantly different behavior. At low trap laser intensities, atoms which undergo a hyperfine-changing collision gain sufficient velocity to escape the trap. Since the hyperfine splittings are quite different for the isotopes, the loss rates display a large isotopic dependence in this regime. At higher trap laser intensities, where trap loss is due to inelastic collisions involving excited atoms, a dramatic and unexpected isotopic dependence is seen. Under identical conditions, the loss rate for 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb is 3.3 times that of 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb.