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Sensors

Experimental Investigation of the Influence of the Laser Beam Waist on Cold Atom Guiding Efficiency

Ningfang Song, Di Hu, Xiaobin Xu, Wei Li, Xiangxiang Lu, Yitong Song

Published Feb 28, 2018• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the vertical guiding laser beam waist on cold atom guiding efficiency. In this study, a double magneto-optical trap (MOT) apparatus is used. With an unbalanced force in the horizontal direction, a cold atomic beam is generated by the first MOT. The cold atoms enter the second chamber and are then re-trapped and cooled by the second MOT. By releasing a second atom cloud, the process of transferring the cold atoms from MOT to the dipole trap, which is formed by a red-detuned converged 1064-nm laser, is experimentally demonstrated. And after releasing for 20 ms, the atom cloud is guided to a distance of approximately 3 mm. As indicated by the results, the guiding efficiency depends strongly on the laser beam waist; the efficiency reaches a maximum when the waist radius (w0) of the laser is in the range of 15 to 25 μm, while the initial atom cloud has a radius of 133 μm. Additionally, the properties of the atoms inside the dipole potential trap, such as the distribution profile and lifetime, are deduced from the fluorescence images.

DOI
10.3390/s18030717

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This thesis describes the development of a laser-cooling experiment aimed at efficient transfer of cold atoms over a short distance, for loading into a conservative atom trap. We detail the construction of a 3D magneto-optical trap (MOT) and perform characterisation measurements to optimise the number and temperature of the cold atoms. The atoms are launched vertically in a fountain from the MOT using a 'moving molasses' technique and a red-detuned far-off-resonant laser beam is used to guide them into an UHV chamber. Loading into the guiding beam is optimised with respect to the beam and MOT parameters. We demonstrate a maximum loading of 20% and guiding over a distance of more than 10 cm without loss of atoms. The atoms are delivered to the UHV chamber in a cloud with a transverse dimension of order 200 #mu#m. We discuss the extension to continuous operation of the guided atomic fountain. The 3D MOT is replaced by a funnel with 2D trapping and 3D cooling which continuously extracts the cold atoms using moving molasses. A comparison between the flux of guided atoms obtained in a pulsed fashion from the 3D MOT and continuously from the funnel indicate that the pulsed case is a factor of ten more efficient. The difference is due to inferior loading from the funnel. The optically guided fountain is used to load an optical dipole trap in the UHV chamber, using an 'optical trap door'. No additional cooling is required. The dynamics of the atoms in the optical dipole trap are studied. We discuss multiple loading of a conservative trap with the view of accumulating more atoms than can be obtained in a MOT. (author)
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A novel scheme of transferring cold atoms in a double magneto-optical trap (MOT) system has been experimentally demonstrated. Cold cesium atoms trapped in a vapor-cell MOT are efficiently transferred to an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) MOT by a continuous-wave divergent Gaussian transfer laser beam. When large red detuning and moderate intensity are adopted for the transfer laser beam, enhancement of the recapturing of atoms in the UHV MOT is clearly observed. Using the divergent transfer laser beam (diameter of approximately 1.60 mm in the vapor-cell MOT region) with typical power of approximately 20.2 mW, up to approximately 85% of transfer efficiency is obtained when the frequency detuning is set to around -1.2 GHz, and it is not sensitive to small detuning variation. This transfer is much efficient compared with that in the case of continuous-wave near-resonance weak transfer laser beam (typical power of order of approximately 100 microW and typical frequency detuning of approximately-10 MHz) which is normally used in double-MOT experiment. The enhancement is ascribed to the guiding effect on cold atomic flux by transverse dipole potential of the large red-detuned transfer laser beam.
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We discuss the results of measurements of the temperature and density distribution of cold Rubidium atoms trapped and cooled in an optical dipole trap formed by focussed CO 2 laser beams at a wavelength of 10.6 μ m from a cold, collimated and intense atomic beam of flux 2 × 10 10 atoms/s produced using an elongated 2D + MOT. A large number of rubidium atoms (⩾ 10 10 ) were trapped in the MOT and the number density of atoms were further increased by making a temporal dark MOT to prevent density-limiting processes like photon rescattering by atoms at the trap centre. Subsequently, between 10 7 to 10 8 cold atoms at a temperature below 30 μK were transferred into a Quasi-Electrostatic trap (QUEST) formed by focussed CO 2 laser beams at the MOT centre. Both single beam and crossed dual beam dipole traps were studied with a total output power of 50 W from the CO 2 laser with focal spot sizes less than 100 microns. Various measurements were done on the cold atoms trapped in the dipole trap. The total atom number in the dipole trap and the spatial atom number density distribution in the trap was measured by absorption imaging technique. The temperature was determined from time-of-flight (TOF) data as well as from the absorption images after ballistic expansion of the atom cloud released from the dipole trap. The results from measurements are used to maximize the initial phase-space density prior to forced evaporative cooling to produce a Bose-Einstein Condensate.
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