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Physical Review Letters

Very cold trapped atoms in a vapor cell

Christopher R. Monroe, William C. Swann, H. G. Robinson, Carl Wieman

Published Sep 24, 1990• 653 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have produced a very cold sample of spin-polarized trapped atoms. The technique used dramatically simplifies the production of laser-cooled atoms. In this experiment, 1.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{7}$ neutral cesium atoms were optically captured directly from a low-pressure vapor in a small glass cell. We then cooled the 1-${\mathrm{mm}}^{3}$ cloud of trapped atoms and loaded it into a low-field magnetic trap in the same cell. The magnetically trapped atoms had an effective temperature as low as 1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2 \ensuremath{\mu}K, which is the lowest kinetic temperature ever observed and far colder than any previous sample of trapped atoms.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.65.1571

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We have produced a very cold sample of spin-polarized trapped atoms. The technique used dramatically simplifies the production of laser-cooled atoms. In this experiment, 1.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}107{10}^{7}107 neutral cesium atoms were optically captured directly from a low-pressure vapor in a small glass cell. We then cooled the 1-mm3{\mathrm{mm}}^{3}mm3 cloud of trapped atoms and loaded it into a low-field magnetic trap in the same cell. The magnetically trapped atoms had an effective temperature as low as 1.1\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2 \ensuremath{\mu}K, which is the lowest kinetic temperature ever observed and far colder than any previous sample of trapped atoms.
We are attempting to produce an atomic vapor that is so cold that the de Broglie wavelength is larger than the interparticle spacing. This is the condition needed to obtain Bose-Einstein condensation of a noninteracting gas. Our approach is to optically trap and cool atomic cesium and then load it into a purely magnetic trap for further cooling. In the course of this work we have investigated a number of magnetic traps and very low temperature collisions that are relevant to the success of this approach. In other work we are developing optical trapping techniques for the efficient collection of radioactive alkali isotopes. This work is aimed at measuring parity violation in these isotopes and thereby stringently testing the standard model of elementary particle physics. We have studied how to optimize the capture efficiency of atoms in an atomic vapor. We are currently developing cells that will allow the atoms to bounce off the walls until they are captured in the optical trap. The efficiency of this capture scheme will be discussed.
We present what is to our knowledge the first observation of spin-polarized atoms cooled within a reflecting cylinder in a high-power medium. A low-pressure vapor of cesium atoms is stored in a glass cell whose volume is 58 cm(3). Cooling laser light (lambda=852 nm) is injected into the cell by optical fibers and is recycled by multiple reflections from the walls of the cylinder. The technique used in this experiment greatly simplifies the generation of laser-cooled atoms. A maximum of 2.5 x 10(8) cold atoms was detected by a time-of-flight technique. The damping of atomic motion has lead to temperatures as low as 3.5muK .
We have studied the behavior of clouds of neutral atoms contained in a spontaneous force optical trap. Because of the low temperatures of the atoms (<1 mK) we have observed a variety of new phenomena which involve both short and long range interactions between the atoms. The short range interactions are manifested in two body collisions which are notable because of the very long collision times. This time scale causes the dynamics to be profoundly affected by absorption and spontaneous emission during the collision. An interesting assortment of collective behaviors are observed when the trapped atom cloud contains more than 105 atoms. These include the expansion of the cloud as the number is increased and dramatic changes in the distribution of the atoms at higher numbers. We can explain much of the collective behavior using a simple model that includes a 1/r2 force between the atoms arising from the multiple scattering of photons. Finally, we discuss the optical trapping of atoms directly from a low pressure vapor in a small glass cell. We have used these optically trapped atoms to load a magnetostatic trap in the same cell. This provided a high density sample of atoms with a temperature of less than 2 μK.