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Chinese Physics Letters

Enhanced Loading of 40 K from Natural Abundance Potassium Source with a High Performance 2D + MOT

Jiang-Ling Yang, Yun Long, Wei-Wei Gao, Lan Jin, Zhanchun Zuo, Ruquan Wang

Published Mar 1, 2018• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

40 K is one of the most important atomic species for ultra-cold atomic physics. Due to the extremely low concentration (0.012%) of 40 K in natural abundance of potassium, most experiments use 4–10% enriched potassium source, which have greatly suffered from the extremely low annual production and significant price hikes in recent years. Using naturally abundant potassium source, we capture 5.4×10 6 cold 40 K atoms with the help of a high performance of two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D + MOT), which is almost three orders of magnitude greater than previous results without the 2D + MOT. The number of the 40 K atoms is sufficient for most ultra-cold 40 K experiments, and our approach provides an ideal alternative for the field.

DOI
10.1088/0256-307x/35/3/033701

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40 K is one of the most important atomic species for ultra-cold atomic physics. Due to the extremely low concentration (0.012%) of 40 K in natural abundance of potassium, most experiments use 4–10% enriched potassium source, which have greatly suffered from the extremely low annual production and significant price hikes in recent years. Using naturally abundant potassium source, we capture 5.4×10 6 cold 40 K atoms with the help of a high performance of two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D + MOT), which is almost three orders of magnitude greater than previous results without the 2D + MOT. The number of the 40 K atoms is sufficient for most ultra-cold 40 K experiments, and our approach provides an ideal alternative for the field.
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 present the design, implementation, and detailed experimental characterization and comparison with numerical simulations of two-dimensional magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of bosonic 23Na and 39K atoms for loading the cold atomic mixture in a dual-species 3DMOT with a large number of atoms. We report our various measurements pertaining to the characterization of two 2D+MOTs via the capture rate in the 3DMOT and also present the optimized parameters for the best performance of the system of the cold atomic mixture. Under the optimized condition, we capture more than 3 × 101039K atoms and 5.8 × 10823Na atoms in the 3DMOT simultaneously from individual 2D+MOTs with a capture rate of 5 × 1010 and 3.5 × 108 atoms/sec for 39K and 23Na, respectively. We also demonstrate improvements of more than a factor of 5 in the capture rate in the 3DMOT from the cold atomic sources when a relatively high-power ultraviolet light is used to cause light-induced atomic desorption in the 2D+MOT glass cells. A detailed study of the light assisted interspecies cold collisions between the co-trapped atoms is presented, and interspecies loss coefficients have been determined to be βNaK ∼ 2 × 10−12 cm3/sec. The cold atomic mixture would be useful for further experiments on quantum simulation with ultra-cold quantum mixtures in optical potentials.
A cold atom source is important for quantum metrology and precision measurement. To reduce the quantum projection noise limit in optical lattice clock, one can increase the number of cold atoms and reduce the dead time by enhancing the loading rate. In this work, we realize an enhanced cold mercury atom source based on a two-dimensional (2D) magneto-optical trap (MOT). The vacuum system is composed of two titanium chambers connected with a differential pumping tube. Two stable cooling laser systems are adopted for the 2D-MOT and the three-dimensional (3D)-MOT, respectively. Using an optimized 2D-MOT and push beam, about 1.3×106 atoms, which are almost an order of magnitude higher than using a pure 3D-MOT, are loaded into the 3D-MOT for 202Hg atoms. This enhanced cold mercury atom source is helpful in increasing the frequency stability of a neutral mercury lattice clock.
Integrating two chemically distinct atomic species into a miniaturized, high-flux cold-atom source is a key challenge for modern experiments with ultracold atomic mixtures and polar molecules. Here, we report a compact setup with in-series two-dimensional magneto-optical traps (2D MOTs) that provides high-flux cold lithium and rubidium atoms. Thanks to the efficient short-distance Zeeman slowing, the maximum 3D MOT loading rate of lithium atoms reaches a record value of 6.6 × 10 9 atoms/s at a moderate lithium-oven temperature of 372 degrees Celsius, which is 44 times higher than that without the Zeeman slowing light. The flux of rubidium is also as high as 2.3 × 10 9 atoms/s with the rubidium oven held at room temperature. Meanwhile, the entire vacuum-chamber system, including an ultra-high-vacuum science cell, is within a small volume of 65 × 55 × 70 cm 3 . Our work represents a substantial improvement over traditional bulky and complex dual-species cold-atom setups. It provides a good starting point for the fast production of a double-degenerate lithium-rubidium atomic mixture and large samples of ultracold lithium-rubidium ground-state molecules.
Abstract The atom source is a relevant component in many atomic molecular optics experiments. The compactness and efficiency of the source are fundamental issues, acquiring more importance as the complexity of the experiments increases. Characterizing new techniques to produce high atom flux is necessary to know the efficiency and peculiarities of each one. This allows choosing the most suitable source for a specific experiment. In this work, we show a direct comparison between a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) and a Zeeman slower (ZS) as source of cold sodium atoms to load a standard three-dimensional magneto-optical trap. The optimum parameters for each case are obtained by observing the loading rate and the final number of atoms in the 3D-MOT. We conclude that the 2D-MOT provides a high flux of atoms comparable with that produced by the ZS, but with an enormous advantage with respect to the size of the apparatus.
Integrating two chemically distinct atomic species into a miniaturized, high-flux cold-atom source is a key challenge for modern experiments with ultracold atomic mixtures and polar molecules.Here, we report a compact setup with in-series two-dimensional magneto-optical traps (2D MOTs) that provides high-flux cold lithium and rubidium atoms.Thanks to the efficient short-distance Zeeman slowing, the maximum 3D MOT loading rate of lithium atoms reaches a record value of 6.6 × 10 9 atoms/s at a moderate lithium-oven temperature of 372 degrees Celsius, which is 44 times higher than that without the Zeeman slowing light.The flux of rubidium is also as high as 2.3 × 10 9 atoms/s with the rubidium oven held at room temperature.Meanwhile, the entire vacuum-chamber system, including an ultra-high-vacuum science cell, is within a small volume of 65 × 55 × 70 cm 3 .Our work represents a substantial improvement over traditional bulky and complex dual-species cold-atom setups.It provides a good starting point for the fast production of a double-degenerate lithium-rubidium atomic mixture and large samples of ultracold lithium-rubidium ground-state molecules.