A Compact, Air-Cooled Zeeman Slower As A Cold Atom Source

Anton P. Vyalykh, Anastasia V. Semenko, A. V. Kohanov +2 more

A compact laser cooling system for transportable optical lattice clocks based on cold 171 Yb atoms has been presented. The system size has been reduced by eliminating the first cooling stage and using compact configurations for the main subsystems of the laser cooling system. A Zeeman slower has been modeled and developed, reducing the velocity of atoms from a thermal source to a level sufficient for their direct capture in a second-stage magneto-optical trap, avoiding the first cooling stage. A method for estimating the number of atoms and their temperature in the magneto-optical trap is presented. The performance of the compact laser cooling system with the developed Zeeman slower has been experimentally confirmed: ~10 6 171 Yb atoms with a temperature of ~35 μK have been collected in ~1 s. The achieved parameters allow for loading of ~4000 atoms into the optical lattice.

James R. Kellogg, Dennis Schlippert, James M. Kohel +3 more

Jie Li, Zhi-Peng Jia, Peng Liu +8 more

We present the design, construction, and characterization of an integrated cold atomic beam source for strontium (Sr), which is based on a compact Zeeman slower for slowing the thermal atomic beam and an atomic deflector for selecting the cold flux. By adopting arrays of permanent magnets to produce the magnetic fields of the slower and the deflector, we effectively reduce the system size and power compared to traditional systems with magnetic coils. After the slower cooling, one can employ additional transverse cooling in the radial direction and improve the atom collimation. The atomic deflectors employ two stages of two-dimensional magnetic-optical trapping (MOT) to deflect the cold flux, whose atomic speed is lower than 50 m/s, by 20° from the thermal atomic beam. We characterize the cold atomic beam flux of the source by measuring the loading rate of a three-dimensional MOT. The loading rates reach up to 109 atoms/s. The setup is compact, highly tunable, lightweight, and requires low electrical power, which addresses the challenge of reducing the complexity of building optical atomic clocks and quantum simulation devices based on Sr.

Michael Borysow

Davood Razzaghi, Mina Baradaran

William Bowden

We demonstrate a two species effusive source and Zeeman slower for lithium 6 and rubidium 85. The fluxes produced by this slower allow for magneto-optical trap loading rates in excess of 10⁸ atoms per second for both species. A detailed model is developed to predict the emission properties of the effusive source along with the flux of cold atoms produced by the slower. Novel to this design is the mating of Zeeman slower magnetic field to the field produced by trapping coils which increases the effective length over which atoms are slowed. This allows for a smaller, more compact slower, without a sacrifice in performance. Details relating to the design and performance of the vacuum system and magnetic field producing coils are also covered. The apparatus can be easily adapted to operate with different atomic species making it well suited for ultracold atomic physics experiments studying mixtures or as starting point for the creation of hetero-nuclear molecules.