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The Dual Frequency Anisotropic Magneto-Optical Trap

Rudy Romain, Philippe Verkerk, Daniel Hennequin

Published Apr 15, 2013• 2 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The cloud of cold atoms produced by a Magneto-Optical Trap is known to exhibit instabilities. We examine in this paper in which limits it could be possible to realize an experimental trap similar to the configurations studied theoretically, i.e. mainly traps where one direction is privileged. We study the static behavior of an anisotropic trap, where anisotropy results essentially from the use of two different laser frequencies for the arms of the trap. Such a trap has very surprising behaviors, in particular the cloud disappears for some laser frequencies, while it exists for smaller and larger frequencies. A model is build to explain these behaviors. We show in particular that, to reproduce the experimental observations, the model has to take into account the cross saturation effects. Moreover, the couplings between the different directions cannot be neglected.

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The cloud of cold atoms produced by a Magneto-Optical Trap is known to exhibit instabilities. We examine in this paper in which limits it could be possible to realize an experimental trap similar to the configurations studied theoretically, i.e. mainly traps where one direction is privileged. We study the static behavior of an anisotropic trap, where anisotropy results essentially from the use of two different laser frequencies for the arms of the trap. Such a trap has very surprising behaviors, in particular the cloud disappears for some laser frequencies, while it exists for smaller and larger frequencies. A model is build to explain these behaviors. We show in particular that, to reproduce the experimental observations, the model has to take into account the cross saturation effects. Moreover, the couplings between the different directions cannot be neglected.
Large clouds of cold atoms prepared in a magneto-optical trap are known to present spatiotemporal instabilities when the frequency of the trapping lasers is brought close to the atomic resonance. This system bears similarities with trapped plasmas where the role of the Coulomb interaction is played by the exchange of scattered photons, and astrophysical objects, such as stars whose size is dependent on radiative forces. We present in this paper a study of the phase space of such instabilities and reveal different dynamical regimes. Three-dimensional simulations of the highly nonlinear atomic dynamics permit a detailed analysis of the experimental observations.
The instabilities observed in the atomic cloud of a magneto-optical trap are experimentally studied through the dynamics of the center of mass location and the cloud population. Two dynamical components are identified: a slow, stochastic one affects both variables, and a fast, deterministic one affects only the center of mass location. A one-dimensional stochastic model taking into account the shadow effect is developed from these observations and reproduces the experimental behavior. It is shown that instabilities are driven by noise and present stochastic resonancelike characteristics.
Large clouds of cold atoms prepared in a magneto-optical trap can develop spatiotemporal instabilities when the frequency of the trapping lasers is brought close to the atomic resonance. This system bears close similarities with trapped plasmas, whereby effective Coulomb interactions are induced by the exchange of scattered photons and lead to collective nonlinear dynamics of the trapped atoms. We report in this paper a detailed experimental study of the instability threshold, and comparisons with three-dimensional simulations of the interacting, laser-driven cloud.
An anisotropic magneto-optical trap is studied as the potential source of a continuous beam of laser-cooled atoms. Capture efficiency and cloud temperature are measured experimentally and found to be lower than in an isotropic situation with the same cooling parameters. Intensity imbalance and static magnetic field are investigated as possible extraction mechanisms. While only small drift velocities are induced by means of intensity imbalance, velocities of tens of are observed with a static magnetic field; the shape of the observed two-peaked velocity distributions is related to the average depth of local light-shift-induced potential wells.
Large clouds of atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) are known to exhibit spatiotemporal instabilities when the frequency of the trapping lasers comes close to the atomic resonance. Such instabilities possess similarities with stars and confined plasmas, where corresponding nonlinearities may give rise to spontaneous oscillations. In this paper, we describe the kinetic model that has recently been employed in three-dimensional (3D) simulations of spatiotemporal instabilities in a MOT, yielding qualitative agreements with experimentally observed instability thresholds and regimes. Details surrounding its implementation are included, and the impact of its physical effects on the instabilities is investigated to improve the understanding of the complex mechanism at work.
In this work we point out a theoretical picture accounting for some unpredicted trapping conditions that have been observed---but not satisfactorily explained---in the past and have been recently confirmed by our experiments. We have realized a sodium magneto-optical trap working on the ${3}^{2}{S}_{1/2}(F=1)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{3}^{2}{P}_{3/2}{(F}^{\ensuremath{'}}=0)$ transition that, according to the usually accepted model, should not work. Our results, with respect to the previous unexplained observations, support more stringent conclusions because our experimental setup gives us the possibility to repump atoms from the F=2F=2F=2 state using D1{D}_{1}D1​ transitions. This definitely excludes that the repumping frequency may play a role in the trap dynamics. A peculiar perturbation approach allows us to demonstrate that the confinement force originates, in this case, from a magnetically induced level-mixing effect. Moreover, we describe separately the nature of damping and confining forces and we recognize that in this case they are due to different transitions. Trap simulations based on a dynamical three-dimensional model are presented, which quantitatively reproduce our experimental results.