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Physical Review A

Magnetostatic trapping fields for neutral atoms

T. H. Bergeman, Gidon Erez, Harold J. Metcalf

Published Feb 1, 1987• 280 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In view of the recent successful confinement of decelerated sodium atoms in a magnetostatic trap, it is of interest to evaluate possible trap-field configurations. Neutral atoms in a Zeeman sublevel whose energy increases with field can be confined by a field whose magnitude \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert} increases with distance from the center. Because this same basic requirement applies also to traps for neutrons and for plasmas (in the guiding-center approximation), trap configurations developed previously for these purposes are of interest for neutral atoms. However, the desired properties differ considerably because of very different objectives and different behavior of very cold atoms as compared with hot plasmas. We characterize basic trap configurations using both the exact expressions for the field, and a multipole polynomial expansion that facilitates studies of symmetry properties and classical or quantum orbits. Polynomial terms for the field components are derived and coefficients obtained by comparison with Taylor-series expansions and by global fit. Contours of \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert} for various trap configurations are also presented. Under certain restrictive conditions, \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert}, and hence the effective potential, can be made isotropic to second order.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.35.1535

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In view of the recent successful confinement of decelerated sodium atoms in a magnetostatic trap, it is of interest to evaluate possible trap-field configurations. Neutral atoms in a Zeeman sublevel whose energy increases with field can be confined by a field whose magnitude \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert} increases with distance from the center. Because this same basic requirement applies also to traps for neutrons and for plasmas (in the guiding-center approximation), trap configurations developed previously for these purposes are of interest for neutral atoms. However, the desired properties differ considerably because of very different objectives and different behavior of very cold atoms as compared with hot plasmas. We characterize basic trap configurations using both the exact expressions for the field, and a multipole polynomial expansion that facilitates studies of symmetry properties and classical or quantum orbits. Polynomial terms for the field components are derived and coefficients obtained by comparison with Taylor-series expansions and by global fit. Contours of \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert} for various trap configurations are also presented. Under certain restrictive conditions, \ensuremath{\Vert}B\ensuremath{\Vert}, and hence the effective potential, can be made isotropic to second order.
Magnetic trapping of laser-cooled neutral atoms has been demonstrated at NBS and is progressing in other laboratories. Confinement of any object requires exchanging kinetic for potential energy, and for neutral atoms, this necessarily derives from shifts of internal energy levels. This is implemented through the force experienced by the atomic magnetic moment in a carefully designed, highly inhomogeneous field. Since magnetic fields of convenient strength can shift atomic energy levels by only a few gigahertz (temperature ≌ 0.1 K), neutral atom traps are very shallow and must be loaded with very cold atoms. We present some motivations for using magnetic traps and then discuss the constraints and optimal configurations of various arrangements. For example, no trap can be isotropic. Next we discuss both the classical and quantum mechanical motions of trapped atoms. These motions are important for at least two reasons: First, several schemes under study for further cooling depend on knowing the position and velocity of the atoms, as well as the vector field at each point along the orbit. Second, magnetic traps depend on the atomic moment remaining aligned with the field as the atom orbits in the trap, and this precludes rapid motion through a low-field region.
We have been studying the use of inhomogeneous magnetic fields for the trapping of neutral atoms via the interaction with their magnetic moments. Apart from gravitational forces (which may turn out to be of great importance in atom traps), only electromagnetic forces are of real interest for trapping neutral atoms, and these forces must necessarily arise from the interaction of multipole moments and inhomogeneous fields. In this paper we restrict ourselves to static traps and magnetic dipoles, even though optical, quasi‐static, and Stark effect traps have been discussed. We present some discussion of the field configurations that might be used, of the motion of ‘‘warm’’ trapped atoms (about 1 K), and of the states of ‘‘cold’’ trapped atoms (about 0.1 μK). The basic scale of the interaction is set by the ratio of the Bohr magneton to the Boltzmann constant, about 1.5 Tesla/Kelvin.
In order to confine any object, it is necessary to exchange kinetic for potential energy in the trapping field, and in neutral atom traps, the potential energy must be stored as internal atomic energy. Thus practical traps for ground-state neutral atoms are necessarily very shallow compared with thermal energy because the energy level shifts that result from conveniently sized fields are typically considerably smaller than k B T , even for T = 1 K. Neutral atom trapping therefore depends on substantial cooling of a thermal atomic sample, and is often connected with the cooling process. In most practical cases, atoms are loaded from magneto-optical traps, where they have been efficiently accumulated and cooled to mK temperatures (see Sec. 20.3), or from optical molasses, where they have been optically cooled to μK temperatures (see Sec. 19.4). The small depth of typical neutral atom traps dictates stringent vacuum requirements, because an atom cannot remain trapped after a collision with a thermal energy background gas molecule. Since these atoms are vulnerable targets for thermal energy background gas, the mean free time between collisions must exceed the desired trapping time. The cross-section for destructive collisions is quite large because even a gentle collision (i.e. large impact parameter) can impart enough energy to eject an atom from a trap. At pressure P sufficiently low to be of practical interest, the trapping time is ~(10 -8 / P ) s, where P is in torr. This chapter begins with a discussion of ordinary, single-center traps, but also considers arrays of traps. Such “optical lattices” are playing an increasingly important role in research in atomic physics, so discussion of their properties is an appropriate part of the education of a student of the subject. Dipole force optical traps Single-beam optical traps for two-level atoms The simplest imaginable optical trap consists of a single, strongly focused Gaussian laser beam (see Fig. 20.1) [214, 215] whose intensity at the focus varies transversely with r as where is the beam waist size. Such a trap has a well-studied and important macroscopic classical analog in a phenomenon called optical tweezers (see App. 1.C) [216–218].
Knowledge of the fundamental limitations on a magnetic trap for neutral particles is of paramount interest to designers as it allows for the rapid assessment of the feasibility of specific trap requirements or the quality of a given design. In this paper, performance limitations are defined for convexity of magnetic trapping potential and bias field using a local approximation in the trapping center. As an example, the fundamental bounds are computed for current supporting regions in the form of a spherical shell, a cylindrical region, and a box. A Pareto-optimal set considering both objectives is found and compared with known designs of the baseball trap and Ioffe-Pritchard trap. The comparison reveals a significant gap in the performance of classical trap designs from fundamental limitations. This indicates a possibility of improved trap designs and modern techniques of shape synthesis are applied in order to prove their existence. The topologically optimized traps perform almost two times better as compared to conventional designs. Last, but not least, the developed framework might serve as a prototype for the formulation of fundamental limitations on plasma confinement in a wider sense.