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Review of Scientific Instruments

A 3D-printed alkali metal dispenser

Eric B. Norrgard, Daniel S. Barker, James A. Fedchak, Nikolai N. Klimov, Julia K. Scherschligt, Stephen Eckel

Published May 1, 2018• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate and characterize a source of Li atoms made from direct metal laser sintered titanium. The source's outgassing rate is measured to be $5 \,(2)\cdot 10^{-7}$\,$\rm{Pa}~ \rm{L}~ \rm{s}^{-1}$ at a temperature $T=330\,^\circ$C, which optimizes the number of atoms loaded into a magneto-optical trap. The source loads $\approx 10^7$ $^7$Li atoms in the trap in $\approx 1$\,s. The loaded source weighs 700\,mg and is suitable for a number of deployable sensors based on cold atoms.

DOI
10.1002/10.1063/1.5023906

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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Apr 9, 2001•0 citations
We demonstrate and characterize a source of Li atoms made from direct metal laser sintered titanium. The source's outgassing rate is measured to be 5 (2)⋅10−75 \,(2)\cdot 10^{-7}5(2)⋅10−7,Pa L s−1\rm{Pa}~ \rm{L}~ \rm{s}^{-1}Pa L s−1 at a temperature T=330 ∘T=330\,^\circT=330∘C, which optimizes the number of atoms loaded into a magneto-optical trap. The source loads ≈107\approx 10^7≈107 7^77Li atoms in the trap in ≈1\approx 1≈1,s. The loaded source weighs 700,mg and is suitable for a number of deployable sensors based on cold atoms.
The realization of cold atoms using a compact and low-power-consumption experimental setup is indispensable for cold atom experiments, including optical clocks and quantum simulations. We demonstrate the direct loading of Yb atoms into a 3D magneto-optical trap (MOT) from a dispenser atomic source without using a Zeeman slower. The power consumption of the dispenser was ∼3 W. Spectroscopy of the atomic beam from the dispenser on the 6s2 1S0–6s6p 1P1 Yb transition at 399 nm shows that the flux of the atomic beam reaches 1.4 × 1013 s−1 cm−2. We can load up to 4.1 × 107 atoms into the MOT with slowing and trapping laser powers of 20.3 and 35.0 mW, respectively. The realized cold atom system is reliable and can be adapted for experiments on alkaline earth and other alkaline earth-like atoms.
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A two element magneto-optical trap (MOT) in standard configuration for Na and 7Li or 6Li is used to cool and trap Na and one Li isotope simultaneously or separately. The metal background vapor out of which the atoms are trapped comes from dispensers. The two atom clouds can be slightly shifted what makes it easy to overlap them. The number and density of the clouds were determined and the temperature measured roughly. The mutual influence of the clouds was investigated and turned out to be smaller than the noise. Preliminary experiments working towards the production of heteronuclear cold molecules by photoassociation were performed, showing the well known production of Na2 long- range molecules. Additionally, the photoionization cross- section was determined by ionizing cold atoms in the excited state by UV-laser light. The results are in reasonable agreement with data obtained elsewhere using synchrotron radiation.