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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Influence of adiabatic following and optical pumping in the production of an intense steady flux of slow atoms

Vanderlei Salvador Bagnato, Ch Salomon, Euclydes Marega Jr., Sérgio Carlos Zílio

Published Mar 1, 1991• 23 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a study of adiabatic following and optical pumping effects in the process of slowing sodium atoms with the Zeeman tuning technique. By manipulating the magnetic-field profile, atoms can be decelerated to a low magnetic field, where they are decoupled from the laser beam by being optically pumped to the F = 1 ground-state sublevel. Using this method, we have produced an intense flux of slow atoms, with a well-controlled velocity of ~1010 atoms/sec.

DOI
10.1364/josab.8.000497

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High Resolution Spectroscopy•Jan 1, 1993•0 citations
We present a study of adiabatic following and optical pumping effects in the process of slowing sodium atoms with the Zeeman tuning technique. By manipulating the magnetic-field profile, atoms can be decelerated to a low magnetic field, where they are decoupled from the laser beam by being optically pumped to the F = 1 ground-state sublevel. Using this method, we have produced an intense flux of slow atoms, with a well-controlled velocity of ~1010 atoms/sec.
We have developed a new scheme to produce a dense trap of sodium atoms in the magneto-optical trap using the transition of F=1 to F'=0 states. In a conventional Zeeman slower a bias magnetic field is applied in the deceleration region to prevent the optical pumping to the F=1 state, so that sodium atoms interact with the cooling radiation of F=2 to F'=3. As a result, many of slow atoms in the F=2 state continue to decelerate adiabatically even at the exit of the solenoid and remain inside the magnetic field. However, slow atoms could be extracted outside the magnetic field, if they are transferred to the F=1 state by the optical pumping via the F'=2 state. Therefore, we reduced the strength of the bias magnetic field. We trapped the slow sodium atoms in the F=1 state directly in the magneto-optical trap.
In order to produce an intense steady flux of slow sodium atoms outside the solenoid in a Zeeman slower, the relation between the extraction velocity of the atoms and the magnetic field gradient at the exit of the Zeeman solenoid was examined. When the magnetic field gradient was 0.5 T/m, slow atoms with a velocity of 160 m/s were extracted outside the solenoid with a slowing laser detuning of 250 MHz. On the other hand, when the magnetic field gradient was higher, i.e., 1.4 T/m, slow atoms with a velocity of 30 m/s were extracted with a slowing laser detuning of 550 MHz. The magnetic-field adiabatic following condition is discussed by comparing the experimental results with those of a Monte Carlo simulation.
In a recent publication1 we have analyzed the stability of the deceleration process of atoms in the Zeeman tuning technique2 by looking at the velocity profile of the atoms along the magnetic field. When the velocity [v(z)] follows the field profile [B(z)] we refer to this as adiabatic following of atoms because the absorption is adiabatically adjusted to each position so that v(z) follows B(z). This situation does not hold everywhere; in fact, at points where the absorption cannot be adiabatically adjusted the velocity ceases to follow the field interrupting the deceleration. The existence of fluctuations on the laser field produces dramatic changes on the expected behavior of the atoms during the deceleration. We have made numerical simulation and analytical investigation where v(z) is obtained for cases where the laser field has frequency and amplitude fluctuations produced by Markovian and Gaussian stochastic processes. In both cases, the deceleration is dependent on the spectral densities of the fluctuations. The process seems to be more sensitive to amplitude than to frequency fluctuation. These results are important in determining the desired characteristics of the laser source on atoms deceleration experiments.
We have studied in detail the Zeeman-tuned slowing of a beam of sodium atoms. We present experimental data that examine details of the slowing by studying the atomic beam both as it slows and after the slowing process has been completed. A Monte Carlo computer simulation reproduces many of the details of our experimental data. We also discuss an analytic model based on the idea that the slowing proceeds adiabatically—that is, such that slowing atoms are always nearly resonant with the laser. This model allows us to give simple physical interpretations to many of the features of our data.
We report on the use of a stimulated Raman transition in a slowed atomic beam to produce a narrow velocity distribution of atoms in a selected electronic state, which could be used for atomic collisions studies in the low temperature regime(1). The velocity selection is part of the deceleration process and in this sense it is unique. The atomic beam is decelerated by the radiation pressure force exerted on the atoms by a counter- propagating laser beam. The resonance condition is maintained along the deceleration path because the changing Doppler shift is compensated by Zeeman tuning the electronic sublevels(2) with a spatialy inhomogneous magnetic field. At the end of the slowing process, the initial Maxwell-Boltzman distribution is compressed to a narrow velocity distribution (Δv ~ 50 m/s), centered close to v = 0. This velocity bunching(3) increases considerably the number of atoms in each velocity class, allowing the use of velocity selection techniques as a feasible way of studying low velocity collisions.