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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Penning collisions in a cold gas of trapped metastable helium atoms

Jérémie Léonard, F. Perales, Franck Pereira dos Santos, Alice Sinatra, Junmin Wang, Michèle Leduc, Claude N. Cohen-Tannoudji

Published Aug 29, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. We report progress on an experiment on trapped metastable /sup 4/He(2/sup 3/S/sub 1/) atoms which aims at producing a dense gas of ultra cold atoms, with the goal of reaching Bose-Einstein condensation. We have built a magneto-optical trap (MOT) in which we study the cold collisions, which are the main loss cause limiting the obtainable density.

DOI
10.1109/iqec.2000.907929

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We have studied a cloud of cold metastable helium (He*) atoms interacting with near-resonant light at 1083 nm and 389 nm. The 1083 nm light allows for efficient loading of a large magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the 389 nm light is subsequently used to increase the density and reduce the temperature of the He* cloud during a brief compression stage. Cold collisions in the cloud yield ions and fast metastables which are monitored separately using calibrated microchannel plate (MCP) detectors. We thus measure absolute production rates of ions and fast metastables escaping from the MOT during the various stages of the experiment. We observe that 389 nm optical collisions, apart from Penning ionization, produce a relatively large flux of fast metastables, which we relate to the short-range behaviour of the molecular potentials involved. Furthermore, by rapidly switching between 389 nm and 1083 nm the ratio between the respective two-body loss rate constants is determined. Using these values, together with the observed time dependence of the cloud size, the temporal behaviour of the absolute ion production rate during the compression stage is well reproduced.

Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics•Aug 25, 2004•7 citations
Summary form only given. We report progress on an experiment on trapped metastable /sup 4/He(2/sup 3/S/sub 1/) atoms which aims at producing a dense gas of ultra cold atoms, with the goal of reaching Bose-Einstein condensation. We have built a magneto-optical trap (MOT) in which we study the cold collisions, which are the main loss cause limiting the obtainable density.
A magneto-optical trap for He(2{sup 3}S) metastable atoms has been constructed, utilizing superconducting magnetic gradient coils and a Ti:Sapphire ring laser for pumping the helium 2{sup 3}S-2{sup 3}P transition. The He(2{sup 3}S) atoms are produced by a weak rf discharge in helium gas at a temperature of 1.4K. The discharge products flow through a small orifice into the trap cell, where a fraction of the He(2{sup 3}S) atoms are trapped and ground state helium atoms are rapidly cryopumped by zeolite pellets that cover most of the cell bottom. Preliminary experiments suggest that {approximately}10{sup 6} atoms are trapped in a small volume at {approximately}1 mK, with a trap lifetime of 10-100 msec limited by resonantly-enhanced He(2{sup 3}S)-He(2{sup 3}P) Penning reactions. Ultimately, it is estimated that a substantial number of atoms can be held at ultra-low temperature in near-perfect vacuum, in a dc magnetic trap. Measurements of decay times of the trapped atoms should yield rate coefficients in the quantum regime for He(2{sup 3}S)-He(2{sup 3}P) and He(2{sup 3}S)-He(2{sup 3}S) Penning reactions, and perhaps the He(2{sup 3}S) radiative lifetime.
The thematics treated in this manuscript illustrate two specificities of ultracold metastable Helium gases: the ability to compare experimental measurement with precise theoretical evaluations (simplicity of the atomic structure) and to easily detect products of Penning ionisations. We present the building and the characterisation of a novel magnetic trap with large optical access, allowing to combine the production of a Bose-Einstein condensate with its in situ loading into a 3D optical lattice. The theoretical fundaments of the experiments planned in those optical potentials are then detailed. In a crossed dipole trap, the influence of the magnetic field, now a free parameter, on the Penning collision rates can be measured and compared to a new theoretical evaluation. Concerning Helium in optical lattices, two subjects are developped: the effect of the confinement on the inelastic Penning collisions (1D optical lattice) and the modelisation of the Penning losses via a dissipative Bose-Hubbard model (3D lattice). Finally we present the first direct measurement of the dipolar magnetic transition 23S1 to 23P2, linking the singlet and triplet families in Helium 4. This spectroscopy experiment, realised in collaboration with the group of W. Vassen (LaserLab - Amsterdam), combines cold atoms knowledge with the frequency comb technique, in order to reach an accuracy of 5 kHz.
Summary form only given. The understanding of the interaction of ultracold atoms will be substantially extended by the experimental study of ultracold non-alkaline systems. Due to the special internal structure and the high internal energy, metastable noble gases will play a crucial role. The objective of our work is to attain a detailed study of the atomic structure and the interactions in a gas of ultracold metastable neon atoms. Ensembles of high phase space density and, if possible, Bose condensates shall be achieved. The elementary pair interaction as well as the collective interactions are to be characterized. Of special interest is Penning ionization as it is the main loss process in dense metastable atom traps. The degree of its suppression in a spin polarized gas will strongly affect the feasibility of a quantum-degenerate system of metastable atoms. In addition, metastable noble gas atoms will allow the implementation of novel diagnostics for the investigation of Bose condensates due to their high detectability. We want to make use of this advantage in order to investigate higher order correlation functions and study the laser-like behavior of Bose condensates and atom-laser outputs. We have achieved loading of 4/spl times/10/sup 8/ atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) and after efficient spin polarization of 2.5 /spl times/ 10/sup 8/ atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard-type magnetic trap. We present a precision measurement of the lifetime of the 3s[3/2]/sub 2/-metastable state of neon which we could determine to 14.70(13)s. We report on the status of the determination of the elastic scattering rate, the rates of Penning ionization for spin-polarized and non-spin-polarized atom samples, and the implementation of evaporative cooling.
Photoassociation of metastable He (2/sup 3/S/sub 1/) atoms at ultra low temperatures close to the BEC phase transition is studied, which was achieved previously in an Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and detected optically through absorption imaging of the optical density profile. In the present experiment, the cloud is brought close to the BEC transition by evaporation and then illuminated by laser pulse tunable around the three (2/sup 3/S/sub 1/-2/sup 3/P/sub 0,1,2/) resonance lines at 1083 nm. A subsequent optical density measurement is used to detect any increases in the trap loss rate that may have been caused by the pulse. The experiment is particularly interested in detecting losses due to the production of ultracold molecules by photoassociation (PA), and in finding several weakly bound S-P states that have not previously been detected.
We have studied a cloud of cold metastable helium (He*) atoms interacting with near-resonant light at 1083 nm and 389 nm. The 1083 nm light allows for efficient loading of a large magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the 389 nm light is subsequently used to increase the density and reduce the temperature of the He* cloud during a brief compression stage. Cold collisions in the cloud yield ions and fast metastables which are monitored separately using calibrated microchannel plate (MCP) detectors. We thus measure absolute production rates of ions and fast metastables escaping from the MOT during the various stages of the experiment. We observe that 389 nm optical collisions, apart from Penning ionization, produce a relatively large flux of fast metastables, which we relate to the short-range behaviour of the molecular potentials involved. Furthermore, by rapidly switching between 389 nm and 1083 nm the ratio between the respective two-body loss rate constants is determined. Using these values, together with the observed time dependence of the cloud size, the temporal behaviour of the absolute ion production rate during the compression stage is well reproduced.