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arXiv:quant-ph/0007039 · Physical Review A

Loading a continuous-wave atom laser by optical pumping techniques

Satyan Bhongale, Murray Holland

Published Sep 1, 2000• 14 citations
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Abstract

Demonstrating that, despite loss processes, Bose-Einstein condensates can be formed in steady state is a prerequisite for obtaining a coherent beam of atoms in a continuous-wave atom laser. In this paper we propose a method for loading atoms into the thermal component of a Bose condensed cloud confined in a magnetic trap. This method is aimed at allowing steady-state dynamics to be achieved. The proposed scheme involves loading atoms into the conservative magnetic potential using the spontaneous emission of photons. We show that the probability for the reabsorption of these photons may be small.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.62.043604

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Demonstrating that, despite loss processes, Bose-Einstein condensates can be formed in steady state is a prerequisite for obtaining a coherent beam of atoms in a continuous-wave atom laser. In this paper we propose a method for loading atoms into the thermal component of a Bose condensed cloud confined in a magnetic trap. This method is aimed at allowing steady-state dynamics to be achieved. The proposed scheme involves loading atoms into the conservative magnetic potential using the spontaneous emission of photons. We show that the probability for the reabsorption of these photons may be small.
We analyze the continuous pumping of atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate via spontaneous emission from a thermal reservoir of atoms. We consider the case of atoms with a three-level $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ scheme, in which one of the atomic transitions has a very much shorter lifetime than the other one. We found that in such a scenario the photon reabsorption in dense clouds at the frequency of the narrow transition can be considered negligible. If, in addition, inelastic processes can be kept negligible, we find that optical pumping can be used to continuously load and refill Bose-Einstein condensates, i.e., it provides a possible way to achieve a continuous atom laser.
We study the optical loading of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate by spontaneous emission of atoms in excited electronic state in the boson accumulation regime. We generalize the previous simplified analysis of Cirac and Lewenstein ( Phys. Rev. A , 53 (1996) 2466), to a 3D case in which more than one trap level of the excited-state trap is considered. By solving the corresponding quantum many-body master equation, we demonstrate that also for this general situation the photon reabsorption can help to increase the condensate fraction. Such effect could be employed to realize a continuous atom laser, and to overcome condensate losses.
The size of alkali vapour Bose-Einstein condensates is determined by the number of atoms which can be collected in a magneto-optical trap. This number is limited by processes involving near-resonant light. A possible technique to exceed the number limit is to load a conservative trap which is spatially separated from the laser cooling region. Here we report on an experiment where cold atoms are transferred from a magneto-optical trap to a spatially separated magnetic trap using an optically guided atomic fountain. This technique offers efficient transfer without requiring any near-resonant light. The extension to multiple and continuous loading is discussed, and we conclude that loading a spatially separated conservative trap offers a promising route towards steady-state Bose-Einstein condensation.
We demonstrate the fast accumulation of 52Cr atoms in a conservative potential from a guided atomic beam. Without laser cooling on a cycling transition, a dissipative step involving optical pumping allows us to load atoms at a rate of 2×10(7) s(-1) in the trap. Within less than 100 ms we reach the collisionally dense regime, from which we produce a Bose-Einstein condensate with subsequent evaporative cooling. This constitutes a new approach to degeneracy where Bose-Einstein condensation can be reached without a closed cycling transition, provided that a slow beam of particles can be produced.
Summary form only given.Laser cooling, where excess kinetic energy is extracted by a photon, is ideally suited to loading atoms into a trap; however, quantization and reabsorption of light, limit the maximum phase-space density attainable. A sequence of laser cooling followed by evaporative cooling, where the excess energy is extracted by escaping atoms, may be used to overcome the laser cooling limit; however, such a scheme dramatically reduces the number of trapped atoms. A remaining challenge is to achieve continuous loading without the phase-space density limit imposed by near-resonant light. We consider continuous evaporative loading of a magnetic trap using a magnetically insensitive buffer gas. The key is to deliver sufficient cold atoms to the trapping region such that the steady-state trap population is large. To achieve this we employ an atomic fountain guided by a far-off resonant laser beam. At the apex of the fountain, the density can be a factor of 30-40 higher than in a magneto-optical trapping region, and importantly, the atoms are spatially separated from the region of resonant laser light. We propose to use this high-density region as a reservoir for continuous evaporative loading of a trap.
We investigate the possibility of obtaining Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in a steady state by continuously loading atoms into a magnetic trap while keeping the frequency of the radio frequency field fixed. A steady state is obtained when the gain of atoms due to loading is balanced with the three dominant loss mechanisms due to elastic collisions with hot atoms from the background gas, inelastic three-body collisions, and evaporation. We describe our model of this system and present results of calculations of the peak phase-space density ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{0}$ in order to investigate the conditions under which one can reach the regime ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{0}>~2.612$ and attain BEC in steady state.