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An ultra-high flux matter-wave laser from a highly flexible ioffe-pritchard trap

Βασιλική Μπόλπαση

Published May 1, 2014• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This thesis describes the development and construction of a machine for producinghigh atom-number Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs). Emphasis is given to thenovel Ioe-Pritchard magnetic trap used, that consists exclusively of circular coils.This allowed us to achieve higher gradients and thus tighter connements [1].This thesis also describes a novel atom-laser output-coupler based on time dependentadiabatic potentials (TDAP) [2]. In this method strong rf elds are usedto deform the trapping potential. Contrary to the traditional weak rf methods thatextracts the atoms from the center of the BEC, the TDAP atom lasers emerge fromthe edge of the condensate. This provides the atom lasers with low divergence.Furthermore, the atoms are outcoupled from the BEC at an arbitrarily large rateleading to uxes per trapped atom sixteen times higher compared to the brightestquasi-continuous atom laser.Finally, presented is the coldest thermal atom beam to date. Using the TDAPoutcoupling, we produced thermal atom beams with temperatures as low as 200 nK,which makes it, by two orders of magnitude, the coldest thermal beam ever observed.Something like that would be very useful for high-resolution spectroscopy of ultracoldcollisions.

DOI
10.12681/eadd/38914

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•Jul 12, 2017•0 citations
This thesis describes the development and construction of a machine for producinghigh atom-number Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs). Emphasis is given to thenovel Ioe-Pritchard magnetic trap used, that consists exclusively of circular coils.This allowed us to achieve higher gradients and thus tighter connements [1].This thesis also describes a novel atom-laser output-coupler based on time dependentadiabatic potentials (TDAP) [2]. In this method strong rf elds are usedto deform the trapping potential. Contrary to the traditional weak rf methods thatextracts the atoms from the center of the BEC, the TDAP atom lasers emerge fromthe edge of the condensate. This provides the atom lasers with low divergence.Furthermore, the atoms are outcoupled from the BEC at an arbitrarily large rateleading to uxes per trapped atom sixteen times higher compared to the brightestquasi-continuous atom laser.Finally, presented is the coldest thermal atom beam to date. Using the TDAPoutcoupling, we produced thermal atom beams with temperatures as low as 200 nK,which makes it, by two orders of magnitude, the coldest thermal beam ever observed.Something like that would be very useful for high-resolution spectroscopy of ultracoldcollisions.
We present a novel, ultra-bright atom laser and an ultra-cold thermal atom beam. Using rf-radiation we strongly couple the magnetic hyperfine levels of 87 Rb atoms in a trapped Bose–Einstein condensate. The resulting time-dependent adiabatic potential forms a trap, which at low rf-frequencies opens just below the condensate and thus allows an extremely bright well-collimated atom laser beam to emerge. As opposed to traditional atom lasers based on weak coupling of the magnetic hyperfine levels, this technique allows us to outcouple atoms at an arbitrarily large rate. We achieve a flux of 4 × 10 7 atom s -1 , a seven fold increase compared to the brightest atom lasers to date. Furthermore, we demonstrate by two orders of magnitude the coldest thermal atom beam (200 nK).
Summary form only given.Since its first observation in 1995, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) experiments in dilute gases have been performed with only a few different kinds of magnetic traps. We have performed a BEC experiment with /sup 87/Rb atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic potential, which opens up the possibility to study, e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates released in only one dimension. Our trap consists of a clip-like coil, which generates a pure two-dimensional (2D) quadrupole field for radial confinement. The axial confinement is provided by two plane pinch coils inside the clip-coil. These two coils create a bottle field. Two additional Helmholtz coils on the same symmetry axis are used to compensate the homogeneous part of the bottle field. By continuously varying the currents through the coils, the trapping potential can be changed from a 3D spherical harmonic to a 2D linear potential. The change can be done adiabatically or nonadiabatically by switching off the axial confinement slowly, or instantaneously respectively. This opens up the possibility to study 1D nonlinear atom optics. In combination with, e.g., far detuned light sheets, a Fabry-Perot type interferometer for a condensate might be realizable. Our experiments are performed in a vacuum system with two magneto-optical traps, which serves as the source of cold atoms for the magnetic trap. 10/sup 9/ atoms are captured in less than one minute. RF-induced evaporative cooling is used to increase the phase space density of the trapped atomic cloud. The BEC phase transition occurs at a temperature of 550 nK with 10/sup 6/ particles in the trap. Pure condensates with more than 10/sup 5/ atoms were produced.
Since its first observation in 1995, Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) experiments in dilute gases have been performed with only a few different kinds of magnetic traps. We have performed a BEC experiment with /sup 87/Rb atoms in a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic potential, which opens up the possibility to study, e.g., Bose-Einstein condensates released in only one dimension. Our trap consists of a clip-like coil, which generates a pure two-dimensional (2D) quadrupole field for radial confinement. The axial confinement is provided by two plane pinch coils inside the clip-coil. These two coils create a bottle field. Two additional Helmholtz coils on the same symmetry axis are used to compensate the homogeneous part of the bottle field. By continuously varying the currents through the coils, the trapping potential can be changed from a 3D spherical harmonic to a 2D linear potential. The change can be done adiabatically or nonadiabatically by switching off the axial confinement slowly, or instantaneously respectively. This opens up the possibility to study 1D nonlinear atom optics. In combination with, e.g., far detuned light sheets, a Fabry-Perot type interferometer for a condensate might be realizable. Our experiments are performed in a vacuum system with two magneto-optical traps, which serves as the source of cold atoms for the magnetic trap. 10/sup 9/ atoms are captured in less than one minute. RF-induced evaporative cooling is used to increase the phase space density of the trapped atomic cloud. The BEC phase transition occurs at a temperature of 550 nK with 10/sup 6/ particles in the trap. Pure condensates with more than 10/sup 5/ atoms were produced.
We describe experimental setups for producing large Bose-Einstein condensates of Na23 and Rb87. In both, a high-flux thermal atomic beam is decelerated by a Zeeman slower and is then captured and cooled in a magneto-optical trap. The atoms are then transferred into a cloverleaf-style Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap and cooled to quantum degeneracy with radio-frequency-induced forced evaporation. Typical condensates contain 20×106 atoms. We discuss the similarities and differences between the techniques used for producing large Rb87 and Na23 condensates in the context of nearly identical setups.
The atom laser has long been a holy grail within atom physics and with the creation of an atom laser we hope to bring a similar revolution in to the field of atom optics. With the creation of the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) in 1995 the path to an atom laser was initiated. An atom laser is continues source of BEC. In a Bose condensate all the atoms occupy the same quantum state and can be described by the same wave function and phase. With an atom laser the De Broglie wavelength of atoms can be much smaller than the wavelength of light. Due to the ultimate control over the atoms the atom laser is very interesting for atom optics, lithography, metrology, etching and deposition of atoms on a surface. All previous atom lasers have been created from atoms coupled out from an existing Bose-Einstein Condensate. There are different approaches but common to them all is that the duration of the output of the atom laser is limited by the size of the initial BEC and they all have a low flux. This leaves the quest to build a continuous high flux atom laser. An alternative approach to a continuous BEC beam is to channel a continuous ultra cold atomic beam into a magnetic guide and then cool this beam down to degeneracy. Cooling down a continuous beam of atoms faces three large problems: The collision rate has to be large enough for effective rethermalization, since evaporative cooling in 2D is not as effective as in 3D and a large thermal conductivity due to atoms with a high angular momentum causes heating downstream in the guide. We have built a 4 meter magnetic guide that is placed on a downward slope with a magnetic barrier in the end. In the guide we load packets of ultra cold rubidium atoms with a frequency rate large enough for the packets to merge together to form a continuous atomic beam. The atomic beam is supersonic and when the beam reaches the end barrier it will return and collide with itself. The collisions lowers the velocity of the beam into subsonic velocities and a shock wave is created between the two velocity regions. In order to conserve number of particle, momentum and enthalpy the density of the atomic beam passing through the shock wave must increase. We have build such a shock wave in an atomic beam and observed the density increase due to this. As an extra feature having a subsonic beam on a downward slope adds an extra density increase due to gravitational compression. Loading ultra cold atoms into a 3D trap from the dense subsonic beam overcomes the problem with 2D cooling and thermal conductivity. This was done and evaporative cooling was applied creating an unprecedented large number rubidium BEC.
Atom chips are an excellent tool for studying ultracold degenerate quantum gases, due to the high degree of controllability afforded by the precise potentials generated from the current-carrying microfabricated wires on the chip surface. The geometries of the trapping potentials are inherently capable of realising extreme aspect ratios, and therefore creating model systems with effectively reduced dimensionality, particularly the theoretically-tractable one-dimensional Bose gas. In addition, the temporal tunability makes it possible to impart non-adiabatic changes on the trapping potentials, allowing experimental investigation of samples which have been brought out of equilibrium - a situation which is not fully theoretically understood. This thesis describes the implementation, development and characterisation of an experimental system for producing the first Bose-Einstein condensates of atomic rubidium 87 gas trapped on the surface of an atom chip in Nottingham. Such an apparatus is very complex and requires careful characterisation in order to run in a stable and reliable way. Details of the experimental setup are thoroughly outlined, including the vacuum system, lasers, electronics, computer control and timing, and the optical imaging system. A newly installed compact two-dimensional magneto-optical trap provides an loading rate of 5e7 atoms per second for loading a three-dimensional mirror-magneto-optical trap with 1.5e8 atoms, at a temperature of 300uK within 10s. The cloud is then sub-Doppler cooled to 50uK, and spin-polarised with 96% purity into the |F=2,mF=+2> ground state within 5ms, in preparation for loading a purely magnetic trap. A millimeter sized copper Z-shaped conductor located beneath the atom chip surface creates a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap, into which the laser cooled cloud is loaded with 70% efficiency, and can be held with a vacuum-limited lifetime of 40s. Evaporative cooling then pre-cools the sample to below 20uK within 10s, to allow the subsequent loading into potentials created by the atom chip with 100% efficiency. A final evaporation stage then cools the cloud below the phase transition temperature of 800nK, resulting finally in pure BECs with 10510^5105 atoms confined using the atom chip. Key measurements of various properties of the trapped condensates are presented, which are important in order to characterise the system fully, and to compare with theoretical expectations. In particular, included are the variation of condensate fraction with temperature, the BEC expansion dynamics, and the condensate lifetime in the trap, for example. Finally, it is demonstrated how BECs can be produced on the atom chip without the use of external macroscopic coils, achieved by using novel, integrated sheet structures located beneath the chip surface - unique to this experimental system - to create the necessary bias fields.