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arXiv:cond-mat/0511113 · Physical Review A

Intense slow beams of bosonic potassium isotopes

Jacopo Catani, Paolo Maioli, L. De Sarlo, F. Minardi, M. Inguscio

Published Mar 14, 2006• 53 citations
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Abstract

We report on an experimental realization of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) that allows the generation of cold atomic beams of $^{39}\mathrm{K}$ and $^{41}\mathrm{K}$ 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 $33\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{m}∕\mathrm{s}$ 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.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.73.033415

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We present a two-dimensional (2D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) setup for the production of a continuous collimated beam of cold 87Rb{}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms out of a vapor cell. The underlying physics is purely two-dimensional cooling and trapping, which allows for a high flux of up to $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}$ atoms/s and a small divergence of the resulting beam. We analyze the velocity distribution of the 2D MOT. The longitudinal velocity distribution of the atomic beam shows a broad feature (full width at half maximum $\ensuremath{\simeq}75 \mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}),$ centered around 50 m/s. The dependence of the flux on laser intensity, on geometry of the trapping volume, and on pressure in the vapor cell was investigated in detail. The influence of the geometry of the 2D MOT on the mean velocity of the cold beam has been studied. We present a simple model for the velocity distribution of the flux based on rate equations describing the general features of our source.
We demonstrate a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) as a beam source for cold 6Li^{6}\text{L}\text{i}6Li atoms. The source is side loaded from an oven operated at temperatures in the range $600\ensuremath{\lesssim}T\ensuremath{\lesssim}700\text{ }\text{K}$. The performance is analyzed by loading the atoms into a three-dimensional MOT located 220 mm downstream from the source. The maximum recapture rate of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{9}\text{ }{\text{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ is obtained for $T\ensuremath{\approx}700\text{ }\text{K}$ and results in a total of up to 1010{10}^{10}1010 trapped atoms. The recaptured fraction is estimated to be $30\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}10%$ and limited by beam divergence. The most-probable velocity in the beam $({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{z})$ is varied from 18 to 70 m/s by increasing the intensity of a push beam. The source is quite monochromatic with a full width at half maximum velocity spread of 11 m/s at ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{z}=36\text{ }\text{m}/\text{s}$, demonstrating that side loading completely eliminates beam contamination by hot vapor from the oven. We identify depletion of the low-velocity tail of the oven flux as the limiting loss mechanism. Our approach is suitable for other atomic species.
We report the sub-Doppler deep-cooled three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (3D MOT) of the fermionic 40K and bosonic 39K isotopes of potassium loaded by a very compact 2D+ MOT with a novel optical design feature. The set-up is meant for studies on the quantum dynamics of a few fermionic and bosonic atoms in an optical dipole trap near and well within quantum degeneracy. The loading rate and atom numbers achieved in the compact simple set-up are comparable to those in the previous set-ups with more elaborate vacuum design. We attained relatively low temperatures of 34 and 30 µK for 39K and 40K after the sub-Doppler cooling process.
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