Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Measurement Science and Technology

Design and characterization of an atomic beam source with narrow angular divergence for alkali-earth targets

Andrew James Murray, Martyn Hussey, Michael Needham

Published Oct 19, 2006• 16 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A new atomic beam source for use in laser-based experiments is described and characterized. The physically collimated source which has been tested using calcium, produces an atomic beam with low angular divergence and narrow transverse Doppler profile, as measured using fluorescence techniques with a near resonant laser beam. The low angular divergence of the source is essential for new experiments which study super-elastic scattering of electrons from laser prepared targets within a magnetic field, since the atomic beam must pass through a narrow gap between the coil windings. The beam density for calcium is calculated to be 2.8 × 109 atoms cm-3 when the source is operated at a temperature of 1090 K. This is sufficient to produce good electron energy loss and super-elastic scattering signals, while ensuring negligible radiation trapping within the atomic beam. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.

DOI
10.1088/0957-0233/17/11/030

Related papers

Low divergence cold-wall oven for loading ion traps

Anand Prakash, Akhil Ayyadevara, E. Krishnakumar +1 more

We present a compact cold-wall oven that is simple to build and align for loading miniature ion traps with calcium ions. The cold-wall oven, which is a metal-loaded capillary heated only through a portion of its length by the passage of a current, is described and characterized. An atomic beam with a low divergence of 14 mrad is produced. We perform Doppler-sensitive, resonant fluorescence measurements on the atomic beam to characterize the oven's performance. The emission of atoms from the oven is seen within ∼70 s after turning on the oven at an electric power consumption of <10 W. The flow rate is measured to be 1.5 ± 0.2 × 109 atoms s-1 at a temperature of 702 ± 7 K. The entire oven assembly is mounted on a CF16 feedthrough. This design can be extended to other species for producing a collimated atomic beam.

Review of Scientific Instruments•Mar 1, 2024•3 citations

Verification and experimental validation of neutral atom beam source produced by L-PBF

Vineet Kumar, Niklas Vilhelm Lausti, Peter Kúš +7 more

Abstract We report validation tests of a calcium atomic-beam source fabricated via Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). The surface quality and elemental composition of the printed component were quantitatively assessed, allowing us to establish reference parameters for reliable operation in an ultra-high-vacuum environment. Safe operating conditions of the atomic oven were determined through a combination of simulations and experimental measurements. The ability of the device to deliver an atomic beam to the main experimental region—the electron/ion trap—was verified using atomic fluorescence imaging. Fluorescence spectroscopy was further employed to characterize the beam divergence, yielding an emission-cone half-angle of approximately 19° for atoms near the beam axis. A current of atoms on the order of 10 8 s −1 was estimated in the electron-trapping region, which is more than sufficient for anticipated electron-trapping and ion-trapping experiments.

arXiv:2512.11364•Journal of Physics Communications•Mar 1, 2026•0 citations

Laser collimation of an atomic gallium beam

Steven J. Rehse, Karen M. Bockel, S. A. Lee

The linear-perpendicular-linear polarization gradient technique was used for investigating laser collimation of a gallium atomic beam in one dimension. The full angular divergence of the atomic beam was reduced to 0.3 mrad by operating on a particular electron transition at 294.45 nm. The transverse velocity of the atoms was reduced to 11 cm/s, which was about half of the Doppler cooling limit. The one-dimensional kinetic energy of atoms was reduced to 6 neV. The transition state exhibited optical pumping of the atoms by the cooling laser.

APS Four Corners Section Meeting Abstracts•Nov 1, 2001•0 citations

Realization of an intense cold Rb atomic beam based on a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap: Experiments and comparison with simulations

Saptarishi Chaudhuri, Sanjukta Roy, C. S. Unnikrishnan

We discuss the implementation and characterization of the source of a slow, intense, and collimated beam of rubidium atoms. The cold atomic beam is produced by two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping in directions transverse to the atomic beam axis and unbalanced Doppler cooling in the axial direction. The vacuum design allows use of relatively low laser power and a considerably simplified assembly. The atomic beam has a high flux of about $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{atoms}∕\mathrm{s}$ at a total cooling laser power of $55\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mW}$. It has a narrow longitudinal velocity distribution with mean velocity $15\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}$ with full width at half maximum $3.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}$ and has a low divergence of $26\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mrad}$. The high flux enables ultrafast loading of about ${10}^{10}$ atoms into a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-optical trap within 500 ms. The variation of the atomic beam flux was studied as a function of the rubidium vapor pressure, cooling laser power, transverse cooling laser beam length, detuning of the cooling laser, and relative intensities of the cooling beams along the atomic beam axis. We also discuss a detailed comparison of our measurements of the cold atomic beam with a 3D numerical simulation.

Physical Review A•Aug 18, 2006•63 citations

Atomic beam source for the ultracold focused ion beam setup

Brenda R. J. Jansen

In the ultracold FIB project a high brightness ion beam is developed for usage in a focused ion beam (FIB) source. This Focused Ion Beam can be used in applications where milling, imaging and deposition at the nanoscale needs to be done with increasing demands on control and resolution. The generation of the ion beam done in three stage principle. The first stage is the generation of the atomic beam and this is the subject of this work. The following stages first transversely cool and compress the atomic beam by using laser cooling techniques and then ionize and accelerate the atoms to form the ion beam. The generation of the atomic beam is done using a Knudsen cell; an effusive oven containing a vapor of rubidium atoms. The pressure difference between the vapor pressure in the oven and the vacuum outside the oven generates a flow of atoms from the oven to the vacuum. Only atoms that have a low transverse velocity can be captured by the laser cooling stage and will attribute to the ion beam. Therefore it is important to minimize the divergence in the beam and to this extent a collimating tube is used to connect the effusive oven to the vacuum system. The collimating tube minimizes beam divergence and compared to other collimating mechanisms it reduces the amount of rubidium loss, therefore greatly increasing the lifetime of the system.In order to measure the transverse velocity distribution, the transverse beam profile and the total flux, Laser-Induced Fluorescence measurements have been performed. These measurements show that the source generates an atomic beam with a particle flux ranging from 107 s-1 at a source temperature of 60 ºC to 1010 s-1 at a source temperature of 160 ºC. The flux is lower than predicted by theory and the transverse velocity distribution is broader than predicted by theory. However, the particle flux is stable within 1% and the installation of an active temperature controller promises to improve this stability even further. In the ultracold FIB project a high brightness ion beam is developed for usage in a focused ion beam (FIB) source. This Focused Ion Beam can be used in applications where milling, imaging and deposition at the nanoscale needs to be done with increasing demands on control and resolution. The generation of the ion beam done in three stage principle. The first stage is the generation of the atomic beam and this is the subject of this work. The following stages first transversely cool and compress the atomic beam by using laser cooling techniques and then ionize and accelerate the atoms to form the ion beam. The generation of the atomic beam is done using a Knudsen cell; an effusive oven containing a vapor of rubidium atoms. The pressure difference between the vapor pressure in the oven and the vacuum outside the oven generates a flow of atoms from the oven to the vacuum. Only atoms that have a low transverse velocity can be captured by the laser cooling stage and will attribute to the ion beam. Therefore it is important to minimize the divergence in the beam and to this extent a collimating tube is used to connect the effusive oven to the vacuum system. The collimating tube minimizes beam divergence and compared to other collimating mechanisms it reduces the amount of rubidium loss, therefore greatly increasing the lifetime of the system.In order to measure the transverse velocity distribution, the transverse beam profile and the total flux, Laser-Induced Fluorescence measurements have been performed. These measurements show that the source generates an atomic beam with a particle flux ranging from 107 s-1 at a source temperature of 60 ºC to 1010 s-1 at a source temperature of 160 ºC. The flux is lower than predicted by theory and the transverse velocity distribution is broader than predicted by theory. However, the particle flux is stable within 1% and the installation of an active temperature controller promises to improve this stability even further.

•Jan 1, 2013•0 citations

Calcium magneto-optical trap loaded from a decelerated atomic beam

Reinaldo L. Cavasso Filho, Daniela A. Manoel, Davi R. Ortega +3 more

We describe a new system for laser cooling and trapping of neutral Calcium atoms employing the ¹S0 -¹ P1 resonant transition at 423 nm. An on-axis magneto-optical trap (MOT) is loaded from a Zeeman decelerated atomic beam. When a single laser is used, in order to avoid perturbation of the trap by the deceleration laser beam, this one has been tightly focused near the MOT center, with a waist size much smaller than the atomic cloud. In order to test the efficiency of this novel technique, we have then employed a second, independent decelerating laser, with a profile mode matched to the atomic beam. For an oven temperature of 580±C this system can load 1.2 (2) x 10(7) atoms in 16 (1) ms. By the spatial extension of the atomic cloud the one dimension rms velocity was estimated to be 136 (12) cm/s, corresponding to a temperature of 9 (2) mK. The variation of the number of trapped atoms as a function of laser detuning and intensity, trap magnetic field gradient and oven temperature is analyzed. Spatial structures of the trapped atoms, like stable rings created by vortex forces, have been observed. This is the first time that these structures, already observed in alkali-metal elements, are reported in MOTs of alkaline-earth elements.

Brazilian Journal of Physics•Jun 1, 2003•3 citations
A new atomic beam source for use in laser-based experiments is described and characterized. The physically collimated source which has been tested using calcium, produces an atomic beam with low angular divergence and narrow transverse Doppler profile, as measured using fluorescence techniques with a near resonant laser beam. The low angular divergence of the source is essential for new experiments which study super-elastic scattering of electrons from laser prepared targets within a magnetic field, since the atomic beam must pass through a narrow gap between the coil windings. The beam density for calcium is calculated to be 2.8 × 109 atoms cm-3 when the source is operated at a temperature of 1090 K. This is sufficient to produce good electron energy loss and super-elastic scattering signals, while ensuring negligible radiation trapping within the atomic beam. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.
We present a compact cold-wall oven that is simple to build and align for loading miniature ion traps with calcium ions. The cold-wall oven, which is a metal-loaded capillary heated only through a portion of its length by the passage of a current, is described and characterized. An atomic beam with a low divergence of 14 mrad is produced. We perform Doppler-sensitive, resonant fluorescence measurements on the atomic beam to characterize the oven's performance. The emission of atoms from the oven is seen within ∼70 s after turning on the oven at an electric power consumption of <10 W. The flow rate is measured to be 1.5 ± 0.2 × 109 atoms s-1 at a temperature of 702 ± 7 K. The entire oven assembly is mounted on a CF16 feedthrough. This design can be extended to other species for producing a collimated atomic beam.
Abstract We report validation tests of a calcium atomic-beam source fabricated via Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). The surface quality and elemental composition of the printed component were quantitatively assessed, allowing us to establish reference parameters for reliable operation in an ultra-high-vacuum environment. Safe operating conditions of the atomic oven were determined through a combination of simulations and experimental measurements. The ability of the device to deliver an atomic beam to the main experimental region—the electron/ion trap—was verified using atomic fluorescence imaging. Fluorescence spectroscopy was further employed to characterize the beam divergence, yielding an emission-cone half-angle of approximately 19° for atoms near the beam axis. A current of atoms on the order of 10 8 s −1 was estimated in the electron-trapping region, which is more than sufficient for anticipated electron-trapping and ion-trapping experiments.
The linear-perpendicular-linear polarization gradient technique was used for investigating laser collimation of a gallium atomic beam in one dimension. The full angular divergence of the atomic beam was reduced to 0.3 mrad by operating on a particular electron transition at 294.45 nm. The transverse velocity of the atoms was reduced to 11 cm/s, which was about half of the Doppler cooling limit. The one-dimensional kinetic energy of atoms was reduced to 6 neV. The transition state exhibited optical pumping of the atoms by the cooling laser.
We discuss the implementation and characterization of the source of a slow, intense, and collimated beam of rubidium atoms. The cold atomic beam is produced by two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping in directions transverse to the atomic beam axis and unbalanced Doppler cooling in the axial direction. The vacuum design allows use of relatively low laser power and a considerably simplified assembly. The atomic beam has a high flux of about $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{atoms}∕\mathrm{s}$ at a total cooling laser power of 55mW55\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mW}55mW. It has a narrow longitudinal velocity distribution with mean velocity 15m∕s15\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}15m∕s with full width at half maximum 3.5m∕s3.5\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}3.5m∕s and has a low divergence of 26mrad26\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mrad}26mrad. The high flux enables ultrafast loading of about 1010{10}^{10}1010 atoms into a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-optical trap within 500 ms. The variation of the atomic beam flux was studied as a function of the rubidium vapor pressure, cooling laser power, transverse cooling laser beam length, detuning of the cooling laser, and relative intensities of the cooling beams along the atomic beam axis. We also discuss a detailed comparison of our measurements of the cold atomic beam with a 3D numerical simulation.
In the ultracold FIB project a high brightness ion beam is developed for usage in a focused ion beam (FIB) source. This Focused Ion Beam can be used in applications where milling, imaging and deposition at the nanoscale needs to be done with increasing demands on control and resolution. The generation of the ion beam done in three stage principle. The first stage is the generation of the atomic beam and this is the subject of this work. The following stages first transversely cool and compress the atomic beam by using laser cooling techniques and then ionize and accelerate the atoms to form the ion beam. The generation of the atomic beam is done using a Knudsen cell; an effusive oven containing a vapor of rubidium atoms. The pressure difference between the vapor pressure in the oven and the vacuum outside the oven generates a flow of atoms from the oven to the vacuum. Only atoms that have a low transverse velocity can be captured by the laser cooling stage and will attribute to the ion beam. Therefore it is important to minimize the divergence in the beam and to this extent a collimating tube is used to connect the effusive oven to the vacuum system. The collimating tube minimizes beam divergence and compared to other collimating mechanisms it reduces the amount of rubidium loss, therefore greatly increasing the lifetime of the system.In order to measure the transverse velocity distribution, the transverse beam profile and the total flux, Laser-Induced Fluorescence measurements have been performed. These measurements show that the source generates an atomic beam with a particle flux ranging from 107 s-1 at a source temperature of 60 ºC to 1010 s-1 at a source temperature of 160 ºC. The flux is lower than predicted by theory and the transverse velocity distribution is broader than predicted by theory. However, the particle flux is stable within 1% and the installation of an active temperature controller promises to improve this stability even further. In the ultracold FIB project a high brightness ion beam is developed for usage in a focused ion beam (FIB) source. This Focused Ion Beam can be used in applications where milling, imaging and deposition at the nanoscale needs to be done with increasing demands on control and resolution. The generation of the ion beam done in three stage principle. The first stage is the generation of the atomic beam and this is the subject of this work. The following stages first transversely cool and compress the atomic beam by using laser cooling techniques and then ionize and accelerate the atoms to form the ion beam. The generation of the atomic beam is done using a Knudsen cell; an effusive oven containing a vapor of rubidium atoms. The pressure difference between the vapor pressure in the oven and the vacuum outside the oven generates a flow of atoms from the oven to the vacuum. Only atoms that have a low transverse velocity can be captured by the laser cooling stage and will attribute to the ion beam. Therefore it is important to minimize the divergence in the beam and to this extent a collimating tube is used to connect the effusive oven to the vacuum system. The collimating tube minimizes beam divergence and compared to other collimating mechanisms it reduces the amount of rubidium loss, therefore greatly increasing the lifetime of the system.In order to measure the transverse velocity distribution, the transverse beam profile and the total flux, Laser-Induced Fluorescence measurements have been performed. These measurements show that the source generates an atomic beam with a particle flux ranging from 107 s-1 at a source temperature of 60 ºC to 1010 s-1 at a source temperature of 160 ºC. The flux is lower than predicted by theory and the transverse velocity distribution is broader than predicted by theory. However, the particle flux is stable within 1% and the installation of an active temperature controller promises to improve this stability even further.
We describe a new system for laser cooling and trapping of neutral Calcium atoms employing the ¹S0 -¹ P1 resonant transition at 423 nm. An on-axis magneto-optical trap (MOT) is loaded from a Zeeman decelerated atomic beam. When a single laser is used, in order to avoid perturbation of the trap by the deceleration laser beam, this one has been tightly focused near the MOT center, with a waist size much smaller than the atomic cloud. In order to test the efficiency of this novel technique, we have then employed a second, independent decelerating laser, with a profile mode matched to the atomic beam. For an oven temperature of 580±C this system can load 1.2 (2) x 10(7) atoms in 16 (1) ms. By the spatial extension of the atomic cloud the one dimension rms velocity was estimated to be 136 (12) cm/s, corresponding to a temperature of 9 (2) mK. The variation of the number of trapped atoms as a function of laser detuning and intensity, trap magnetic field gradient and oven temperature is analyzed. Spatial structures of the trapped atoms, like stable rings created by vortex forces, have been observed. This is the first time that these structures, already observed in alkali-metal elements, are reported in MOTs of alkaline-earth elements.