Compressing an atom cloud in a magneto-optical trap

Luís Gustavo Marcassa, Gregory I. Surdutovich, Marcos Oriá +4 more

Pantita Palittapongarnpim

This thesis presents the study of atomic cloud density and temperature in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The purpose is to find the method in obtaining the densest and coldest cloud the setup can produce. In steady state trap, the highest atomic density possible is that of a cloud in multiple scattering regime where a repulsive force between atoms sets a limit to the density. The number of atoms loaded into the trap is controlled by the trapping beam intensity which also changes the temperature. Therefore the trap density and temperature cannot be controlled separately. The cloud compression is studied as a method of increasing atomic density above what is possible in steady state trap without noticeable influence on the cloud temperature. Cloud compression is also found when the cloud is translated by changing the magnetic field zero-point although in a less predictable fashion than the compression.

Yanxu Han, Liu Y, Chunhong Zhang +2 more

We report experimental demonstration of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Rb atoms with a high optical density. With 2.2-cm-diameter cooling laser beams, we achieve an optical density of nearly 11 for about 2.6 × 10 10 trapped Rb atoms with the beam intensity of about 6.6 mW/cm per beam. The temperature of the cold atoms is about 250 μK. Furthermore, by ramping the magnetic field gradient from 8 G/cm to about 20 G/cm, the atomic cloud in the MOT is compressed and the optical density is up to 16.

Jinwei Wu, Eunsoon Oh, Frank A. Moscatelli +3 more

Evan J. Carlson, Daniel S. Roberson, Shannon K. Mayer

Lan‐Sheng Yang, Bai-Tzeng Han, De-Sheng Hong +2 more

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.