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Optics Letters

Simultaneous cooling and trapping of ^85Rb and ^87Rb in a magneto-optical trap

Wenko Süptitz, G. Wokurka, Frank Strauch, Peter Kohns, Wolfgang A. Ertmer

Published Oct 1, 1994• 49 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Two different isotopes-(85)Rb and (87)Rb-have been captured simultaneously in one magneto-optical trap. The trap parameters could be chosen nearly independently for the two isotopes. The trap loss rates that are due to collisions between atoms of different isotopes have been measured in the low-intensity limit.
DOI
10.1364/ol.19.001571

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We report on measurements of trap-loss collisions between ultracold Rb atoms that are confined in a magneto-optical trap. Both isotopes, 85Rb{}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb and 87Rb,{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb},87Rb, have been studied over a wide range of trap laser intensities and detunings. The trap-loss collisional rate constant exhibits variations over three orders of magnitude. At low intensities and/or large detunings, the trap loss is dominated by ground-state hyperfine-changing collisions, while at high intensities and small detunings, collisions involving excited atoms are more important. We see significant differences between the isotopes in both regimes. At large detunings, the ability of the trap to recapture products of a hyperfine-changing collision is significantly diminished. This finding is supported by our numerical simulations of the recapture process. The trap loss rates due to collisions with room-temperature background gas have also been measured. A surprisingly large increase in this rate is seen when the confining power of the trap is reduced.
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.
Abstract We report simultaneous cooling and trapping of metastable 84 Kr ( 84 Kr*) and metastable 86 Kr ( 86 Kr*) atoms by overlapping the cooling laser beams for these different isotopes in the same region of a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Approximately 2 × 10 5 atoms of each isotope were trapped in this two isotope-MOT (TIMOT). We have investigated the heteronuclear collision trap loss rates for each isotope due to the presence of cold atoms of other isotope using the TIMOT loading curves. The two body heteronuclear loss rate coefficient (i.e. for the loss of 84 Kr* due to presence of 86 Kr*) and the reciprocal loss rate coefficient (i.e. for the loss of 86 Kr* due to presence of 84 Kr*) are measured to be (8.7 ± 0.8) × 10 −10 cm 3 s −1 and (8.8 ± 0.8) × 10 −10 cm 3 s −1 respectively for laser beam intensity values of 21 mW cm −2 (for cooling of 84 Kr*) and 64 mW cm −2 (for cooling of 86 Kr*). The dependence of heteronuclear cold collision loss rate on cooling laser beams intensity has also been studied and compared with homonuclear cold collision loss rate.
We have simultaneously confined fermionic 84Rb{}^{84}\mathrm{Rb}84Rb and bosonic 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms in overlapping magneto-optical traps in which radioactive 84Rb{}^{84}\mathrm{Rb}84Rb atoms (t1/2=33{(t}_{1/2}=33(t1/2​=33 d) have been trapped. We investigated 84Rb{}^{84}\mathrm{Rb}84Rb trap loss when overlapped with a cloud of 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms trapped from a background rubidium vapor. Collision loss measurements were taken with $\ensuremath{\sim}5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}$ and $\ensuremath{\sim}4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms of trapped 84Rb{}^{84}\mathrm{Rb}84Rb and 87Rb,{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb},87Rb, respectively. We have found a trapping solution for which there is negligible additional trap loss for 84Rb{}^{84}\mathrm{Rb}84Rb due to the presence of 87Rb,{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb},87Rb, showing that the mixture can be readily prepared for a sympathetic cooling experiment.
We present the simultaneous trapping and cooling of 85{}^{85}85Rb, 87{}^{87}87Rb and 133{}^{133}133Cs in a triple-species magneto-optical trap (MOT). This demonstration is obtained using an all-fibre compact and robust laser system based on telecom 1.5 μμμm and 2 μμμm technologies. We characterise the two-body interspecies losses in the double and triple-species MOT. We calculate the two-body interspecies trap-loss coefficient for the 85{}^{85}85Rb/133{}^{133}133Cs and the 87{}^{87}87Rb/133{}^{133}133Cs pairs, representing a variation of less than 7 \% in atom number. No losses are observed between 85{}^{85}85Rb and 87{}^{87}87Rb in our experimental conditions. We find that interspecies interactions inside the triple-species MOT do not prevent trapping and cooling 108^{8}8 atoms for each species, making our system suitable for future multi-species cold-atom interferometry applications.
Abstract We describe a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) capable of simultaneously capturing 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. Unlike conventional setups, our system utilizes two separate laser systems that are combined before entering the vacuum chamber, enabling the simultaneous trapping of two different atomic species. We trapped 85Rb and 133Cs atoms using relatively low total power: 8 mW cooling and 4 mW repump for 85Rb, and 7.5 mW cooling and 1.5 mW repump for 133Cs. The number of trapped atoms was 1.6 × 108 for 85Rb and 1.4 × 108 for 133Cs. The optical depths were 3.71 for 85Rb and 3.45 for 133Cs. The temperature of trapped atoms was ∼200 μK for 85Rb and ∼200 μK for 133Cs. Our 3D MOT setup allows full horizontal optical access to the trapped atomic ensembles without spatial interference from the trapping or repump laser beams. Our vacuum system is also quite simple, avoiding much of the complexity typically encountered in similar dual-species systems. However, the red detuning of the cooling laser used for atomic trapping in our system is relatively small, leaving room for further optimization. This system offers a versatile platform for exploring complex phenomena in ultracold atom physics, such as Rydberg molecule formation and interspecies interactions.