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We present a high-flux source of cold ytterbium atoms that is robust, lightweight and low-maintenance. Our apparatus delivers $10^9$ atoms/s into a 3D magneto-optical trap without requiring water-cooling or high current power supplies. We achieve this by employing a Zeeman slower and a 2D magneto-optical trap fully based on permanent magnets in Halbach configurations. This strategy minimizes mechanical complexity, stray magnetic fields, and heat production while requiring little to no maintenance, making it applicable to both embedded systems that seek to minimize electrical power consumption, and large scale experiments to reduce the complexity of their subsystems.
We describe an experimental apparatus capable of achieving a high loading rate of strontium atoms in a magneto-optical trap operating in a high vacuum environment. A key innovation of this setup is a two dimensional magneto-optical trap deflector located after a Zeeman slower. We find a loading rate of 6x10^9/s whereas the lifetime of the magnetically trapped atoms in the 3P2 state is 54s.
We investigate a solid-state, reversible, alkali-ion battery (AIB) capable of regulating the density of alkali atoms in a vacuum system used for the production of laser-cooled atoms. The cold-atom sample can be used with in-vacuum chronoamperometry as a diagnostic for the voltage-controlled electrochemical reaction that sources or sinks alkali atoms into the vapor. In a combined reaction-diffusion-limited regime, we show that the number of laser-cooled atoms in a magneto-optical trap can be increased both by initially loading the AIB from the vapor for longer, and by using higher voltages across the AIB when atoms are subsequently sourced back into the vapor. The time constants associated with the change in atom number in response to a change in AIB voltage are in the range of 0.5 s - 40 s. The AIB alkali reservoir is demonstrated to survive oxidization during atmospheric exposure, simplifying reservoir loading prior to vacuum implementation as a replacement for traditional resistively-heated dispensers. The AIB capabilities may provide an improved atom number stability in next-generation atomic clocks and sensors, while also facilitating fast loading and increased interrogation times.
We report the measurement of collision rate coefficient for collisions between ultracold Cs atoms and low energy Cs+ ions. The experiments are performed in a hybrid trap consisting of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for Cs atoms and a Paul trap for Cs+ ions. The ion-atom collisions impart kinetic energy to the ultracold Cs atoms resulting in their escape from the shallow MOT and, therefore, in a reduction in the number of Cs atoms in the MOT. By monitoring, using fluorescence measurements, the Cs atom number and the MOT loading dynamics and then fitting the data to a rate equation model, the ion-atom collision rate is derived. The Cs-Cs+ collision rate coefficient $9.3(pm0.4)(pm1.2)(pm3.5) times 10^{-14}$ m$^{3}$s$^{-1}$, measured for an ion distribution with most probable collision energy of 95 meV ($approx k_{B}.1100$ K), is in fair agreement with theoretical calculations. As an intermediate step, we also determine the photoionization cross section of Cs $6P_{3/2}$ atoms at 473 nm wavelength to be $2.28 (pm 0.33) times 10^{-21}$ m$^{2}$.
The last few years have seen rapid progress in the application of laser cooling to molecules. In this review, we examine what kinds of molecules can be laser cooled, how to design a suitable cooling scheme, and how the cooling can be understood and modelled. We review recent work on laser slowing, magneto-optical trapping, sub-Doppler cooling, and the confinement of molecules in conservative traps, with a focus on the fundamental principles of each technique. Finally, we explore some of the exciting applications of laser-cooled molecules that should be accessible in the near term.
We report loading of laser-cooled caesium atoms into a hollow-core photonic-bandgap fiber and confining the atoms in the fibers 7 $mu m$ diameter core with a magic-wavelength dipole trap at $sim$935 nm. The use of the magic wavelength removes the AC-Stark shift of the 852nm optical transition in caesium caused by the dipole trap in the fiber core and suppresses the inhomogeneous broadening of the atomic ensemble that arises from the radial distribution of the atoms. This opens the possibility to continuously probe the atoms over time scales of a millisecond -- approximately 1000 times longer than what was reported in previous works, as dipole trap does not have to be modulated. We describe our atom loading setup and its unique features and present spectroscopy measurements of the caesiums D$_{2}$ line in the continuous wave dipole trap with up to $1.7 times 10^{4}$ loaded inside the hollow-core fiber.