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Physical Review A

Measurement of the trap parameters of a magneto-optical trap by external periodic perturbation

Geol Moon, Myoung-Sun Heo, Yong Hee Kim, Heung‐Ryoul Noh, Wonho Jhe

Published Mar 29, 2010• 11 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report a simple method for trap parameter measurement by realizing forced harmonic oscillation in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Through the resonance curve of the vibrational amplitude of the harmonic oscillation on the driving frequency of the laser intensity, we measured the damping coefficient and trap frequency of trapped atoms in the MOT under various conditions and compared them with those obtained from the parametric resonance. In particular, we report a significant effect of a transverse laser on one-dimensional harmonic oscillation. This effect is expected to explain the discrepancies in other previous experiments between the experimental and theoretical results.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.81.033425

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We report a simple method for trap parameter measurement by realizing forced harmonic oscillation in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Through the resonance curve of the vibrational amplitude of the harmonic oscillation on the driving frequency of the laser intensity, we measured the damping coefficient and trap frequency of trapped atoms in the MOT under various conditions and compared them with those obtained from the parametric resonance. In particular, we report a significant effect of a transverse laser on one-dimensional harmonic oscillation. This effect is expected to explain the discrepancies in other previous experiments between the experimental and theoretical results.
We report the characterization of the forced damped harmonic oscillations of 133 Cs atoms in a magneto-optical trap, which was realized by modulating the intensity of the lasers counterpropagating along the anti-Helmholtz coil axis. Trap parameters such as trap frequency, damping coefficient, and magnitude of the driving force were determined from the resonant vibrational amplitude of the 133 Cs atomic cloud depending on the modulation frequency of the modulated laser intensity. The experimental results were compared with the theoretical ones based on the simple two-level and multi-level atom models, considering all possible transition lines used to trap the 133 Cs atom, and were found to be consistent with their theoretical counterparts. Furthermore, we theoretically examined the effect of the repumping laser on trap parameters.
We present a method to measure the trap frequency or the spring constant of a magneto-optical atom trap via the parametric resonance. When the intensity of the cooling laser is modulated at around twice its resonant trap frequency, the trapped atoms are parametrically excited and divided into two groups oscillating with the motional phase difference of $\ensuremath{\pi}$. We find that one can measure the natural trap frequency as the modulation amplitude is decreased down to its threshold value. The experimental results are in good agreement with the three-dimensional Doppler cooling theory based on the rate equation model.
We demonstrate parametric resonance in a magneto-optical trap. When we modulate the intensity of the cooling laser at about twice the resonant frequency of the trap, the atoms in the trap are divided into two parts and oscillate with 180 degree phase difference with the finite length due to nonlinearity of the trap potential. These are the effects of general nonlinear dynamics, called the Hopf bifurcation, or limit cycle motion. The amplitude and the phase of the oscillations are measured and compared with the theoretical calculations based on simple Doppler cooling theory. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with the simulation results based on the simple Doppler cooling theory.
We have measured the trap frequency as well as the damping coefficient of a magneto-optical trap by using a transient oscillation method. The dependence of such trap properties on the various experimental parameters such as the cooling laser intensity, detuning, and magnetic field gradient is investigated. We find that the measured trap frequency is in excellent agreement with the simple rate-equation analysis based on the Doppler cooling theory. In contrast, the damping coefficient is about twice as large as the calculated one, which is attributed to the existence of the sub-Doppler trap near the trap center.
Abstract We report the first observation of motional excitation induced by parametric resonance of cold 133^{133}133Cs atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) simultaneously trapping 133 Cs and 85 Rb atoms. By modulating the cooling laser’s intensity at approximately twice the resonant frequency of the trap, the atoms inside the trap separate into two atomic clouds, oscillating with a π phase difference due to the trap potential’s nonlinearity, resulting in a finite oscillation length. This behavior reflects general nonlinear dynamics and is described as a Hopf bifurcation or limit cycle motion. The measured oscillation amplitude was compared with theoretical calculations derived from simple Doppler cooling theory, changing modulation amplitude, magnetic field gradient, and saturation parameter. In addition, we investigate the noise-induced switching dynamics by measuring the temporal evolution of atomic populations localized in each of the two attractors under resonant symmetry lifting induced by an effective bias field. Notably, this dual-species MOT system is expected to provide a new platform for studying nonlinear and nonequilibrium dynamics between cold rubidium and cesium atomic ensembles. PACS numbers: 37.10.Vz, 37.10.De, 37.10.Gh
We study the loading dynamics of an optical dipole trap and an optical lattice both experimentally and theoretically. A simple power dependence for the number of trapped atoms (N∝P3∕2) is revealed in both cases. We then study the parametric excitation of the trapped atoms. High order parametric resonance is observed close to but lower than 4ν in a CO2 laser optical lattice. The existence of the high harmonic and its shift toward lower frequency are attributed to the anharmonicity of the optical trapping potential. We investigate the discrepancy between experimentally measured optical lattice frequencies and the theoretical calculation for several published experiments and present corrected formula for trap frequency calculations. Using this corrected formula and accounting for the off-center lattice sites, we present a modified formula for calculating the optical lattice frequency and obtain better agreement between experimental measurement and theoretical calculation.