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Optics Letters

Multiply loaded magneto-optical trap

Christopher J. Myatt, Nathan R. Newbury, R. W. Ghrist, S. Loutzenhiser, Carl Wieman

Published Feb 15, 1996• 111 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report a two-chambered, differentially pumped system that permits rapid collection of trapped atoms with a vapor cell magneto-optical trap (MOT) and efficient transfer of these atoms to a second MOT in a lowerpressure chamber. During the transfer the atoms are guided down a long, thin tube by a magnetic potential, with 90(15%) transfer efficiency. By multiply loading, we accumulate and hold as many as 30 times the number collected by the vapor cell MOT. By thus separating the collection and holding functions of a MOT, we can collect as many as 1.5(0.6) x 10(10) rubidium atoms and hold them for longer than 100 s, using inexpensive low-power diode lasers.

DOI
10.1364/ol.21.000290

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We report a two-chambered, differentially pumped system that permits rapid collection of trapped atoms with a vapor cell magneto-optical trap (MOT) and efficient transfer of these atoms to a second MOT in a lowerpressure chamber. During the transfer the atoms are guided down a long, thin tube by a magnetic potential, with 90(15%) transfer efficiency. By multiply loading, we accumulate and hold as many as 30 times the number collected by the vapor cell MOT. By thus separating the collection and holding functions of a MOT, we can collect as many as 1.5(0.6) x 10(10) rubidium atoms and hold them for longer than 100 s, using inexpensive low-power diode lasers.
We have built an apparatus for setting up a double magneto-optical trap (double MOT) which allows more than 10 Rb atoms to be loaded in 15 seconds. This compact system consists mainly of a stainless steel chamber and a homemade glass cell. The two chambers are spatially separated by a small diameter transfer tube for differential pumping. The stainless steel chamber is maintained at a pressure of 10 Torr, enabling fast capturing of background Rb atoms. The optically cooled atomic clouds are pushed by a laser beam towards the glass cell which is in a much higher vacuum. Under this condition, the glass cell provides a rather long life time for holding the atoms. After the atoms are loaded in the temporarily bright MOT, a semi-dark type MOT compression is employed to reach a spatial density of 1×10 atoms/cm. The compressed atom clouds are further cooled by polarization gradient cooling to a temperature of 30 μK. The high phase space density cloud is suitable for experiments related to ultracold atoms.
With a vapor-cell magneto-optical trap (VCMOT) atoms are trapped directly from the equilibrium vapor at room temperature without the complication of a precooling stage. The background vapor, however, can also be a source of energetic atoms hitting and ejecting those atoms already trapped. The background collision limits trap confinement time /spl tau/ and consequently the total number N of atoms trapped in a VCMOT. In order to have large /spl tau/ and N without losing the convenience and simplicity of a VCMOT, double MOT systems were built. In such a system there is a VCMOT with a usual background vapor pressure, and connected to it is another MOT without the vapor. The VCMOT captures atoms and transfers them to the second MOT through a long tube. The tube provides the constriction to maintain the pressure difference between the two MOT chambers. For the second MOT there is a steady supply of slow atoms without the complication of the background vapor, and it can hold a large number of atoms for a long time. Such systems were successfully used for a Bose Einstein condensation experiment and to study cold collisions.
We present an experimental scheme for producing ultracold ytterbium atoms in a compact dual-chamber setup. A dispenser-loaded two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT) using permanent magnets and operating on the broad ${}^{1}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{}^{1}{P}_{1}$ singlet transition delivers over 107{10}^{7}107 atoms per second through a differential pumping stage into a three-dimensional MOT. The two-color three-dimensional MOT uses the broad singlet transition to accumulate $\ensuremath{\sim}2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms of 174Yb{}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb within 2.5 s and subsequently the narrow ${}^{1}{S}_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{}^{3}{P}_{1}$ intercombination line to cool the atomic cloud to below 10 \textmu{}K. We report optimized parameters for each stage of the atom collection sequence, achieving high transfer efficiency. We find that shelving into the triplet state during the broad-transition MOT almost doubles the number of trapped atoms.
We design an experiment to obtain a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) using 87Rb atoms. Taking advantage of this setup, we develop a simple and efficient method to transfer atoms from a first Magneto- Optical-Trap(MOT) to a second one. Our system consists of two glass vacuum cells horizontally connected with a MOT aligned at the center of each cell. Once rubidium atoms are loaded into the first MOT, the pushig beam forces them to move forward to the second MOT. We use a near-resonant weak laser beam to make the atoms reach the second cell. MOT1 and MOT2 both run in retroreflected-three beam MOT configuration.
In our double magneto-optical trap (MOT) setup containing a vapor chamber MOT (VC-MOT) and an ultra high vacuum MOT (UHV-MOT) for 87^{87}87Rb atoms, we find that transfer of atoms from VC-MOT to UHV-MOT can be enhanced by employing a pulsed VC-MOT loading followed by a pulsed push beam, as compared to that obtained by focusing a continuous wave (CW) push beam on a continuously loaded VC-MOT. By choosing appropriately the VC-MOT duration and push beam duration, the number of atoms in UHV-MOT was $\sim$3-times the number obtained with a continuous VC-MOT and a CW push beam of optimized power. The processes affecting the pulsed transfer have been studied.