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Journal of the Optical Society of America B

Optimized atomic flux from a frequency-modulated two-dimensional magneto-optical trap for cold fermionic potassium atoms

Jae Hoon Lee, Jongchul Mun

Published Jun 12, 2017• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present our study on enhancement and optimization of potassium-40 (K40) atomic beam flux from a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) by modulating the frequency of cooling laser. The laser cooling beam frequencies of the 2D MOT were effectively broadened via electro-optical modulators at 10 MHz, with a modulation index ranging from β=0 to 7, depending on the laser intensity. Laser parameters of the 2D MOT beams and the magnetic field gradient were scanned for optimal settings for maximum atomic beam flux. When compared to a conventional 2D MOT with fixed laser frequencies, we were able to obtain a 3.7 times enhancement of the atomic flux when the total laser power was 640 mW. Numerical calculations predict further improvement for higher laser beam intensities.

DOI
10.1364/josab.34.001415

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We present our study on enhancement and optimization of potassium-40 (K40) atomic beam flux from a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) by modulating the frequency of cooling laser. The laser cooling beam frequencies of the 2D MOT were effectively broadened via electro-optical modulators at 10 MHz, with a modulation index ranging from β=0 to 7, depending on the laser intensity. Laser parameters of the 2D MOT beams and the magnetic field gradient were scanned for optimal settings for maximum atomic beam flux. When compared to a conventional 2D MOT with fixed laser frequencies, we were able to obtain a 3.7 times enhancement of the atomic flux when the total laser power was 640 mW. Numerical calculations predict further improvement for higher laser beam intensities.
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We present a two-dimensional (2D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) setup for the production of a continuous collimated beam of cold 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms out of a vapor cell. The underlying physics is purely two-dimensional cooling and trapping, which allows for a high flux of up to $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}$ atoms/s and a small divergence of the resulting beam. We analyze the velocity distribution of the 2D MOT. The longitudinal velocity distribution of the atomic beam shows a broad feature (full width at half maximum $\ensuremath{\simeq}75 \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}),$ centered around 50 m/s. The dependence of the flux on laser intensity, on geometry of the trapping volume, and on pressure in the vapor cell was investigated in detail. The influence of the geometry of the 2D MOT on the mean velocity of the cold beam has been studied. We present a simple model for the velocity distribution of the flux based on rate equations describing the general features of our source.
We report on an experimental realization of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) that allows the generation of cold atomic beams of 39K^{39}\mathrm{K}39K and 41K^{41}\mathrm{K}41K bosonic potassium isotopes. The high measured fluxes up to $1.0\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{11}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{atoms}∕\mathrm{s}$ and low atomic velocities around 33m∕s33\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}33m∕s are well suited for a fast and reliable three-dimensional magneto-optical trap loading, a basilar feature for new generation experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute atomic samples. We also present a simple multilevel theoretical model for the calculation of the light-induced force acting on an atom moving in a MOT. The model gives a good agreement between predicted and measured flux and velocity values for our 2D-MOT.
We experimentally study the use of two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping (2D-MOT) for the generation of slow beams of cold atoms out of a vapor cell. A particularly high flux of $9\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}$ rubidium atoms/s at a mean velocity of 8 m/s is obtained using a combination of magneto-optical trapping in two dimensions and Doppler cooling in the third dimension $({2\mathrm{D}}^{+}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{MOT}).$ The resulting width of the velocity distribution is 3.3 m/s [full width at half maximum (FWHM)] with a beam divergence of 43 mrad (FWHM). We investigate the total flux as a function of vapor cell pressure and determine the velocity distribution of our slow atom sources. For comparison, we also realized a low-velocity intense source (LVIS), first reported by Lu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3331 (1996)]. We find that the ${2\mathrm{D}}^{+}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{MOT}$ yields a significantly higher flux than the LVIS, even when used with an order of magnitude less laser power.